


How Far We've Come

by InfernalScreeching



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: ? - Freeform, Altean Reader, F/F, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, M/M, Matchbox 20, Maybe - Freeform, Multi, Other, Reader-Insert, Reader-Interactive, Slow Burn, Songfic, ish, klance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-12 04:22:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 37,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12951192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InfernalScreeching/pseuds/InfernalScreeching
Summary: Voltron character x reader self insert.As an Altean soldier, you’ve known the original paladins and have grown attached to them. What will happen when you wake up to find a whole new set of paladins?





	1. I'm waking up at the start of the end of the world...

From a young age, Y/n was brought up as the perfect Altean soldier. Diplomacy always comes first, you must protect all that’s living, etcetera, etcetera, all while having great hair.  
Innovative technology on Altea made by its alchemists had reached its peak. Now mind and metal could interact, bond even, with the help of quintessence. The raw energy of the fifth alchemical element found held more power than any other fuel in the known universe. King Alfor’s great ships were proof of their success. Even the Castle of Lions was upgraded with this new technology.

The King was an intelligent and kind man who ruled his planet fairly like his ancestors before him. However some might argue that all sense left him as soon as his daughter was involved. Alfor was always afraid of something happening to his only child. So the young Y/n spent most of her time by the princess’s side, creating a sibling-like bond between the two as planned. Once she was old enough to officially become princess Allura’s bodyguard, Y/n was given her very own bayard.

After each intense training session under the attentive guidance of her mother, she would eagerly teach all the new things she learned to the princess. In their free time, the two adolescents would explore whatever planet they desired (as long as it had the King’s approval).

Being close to the princess had obviously many perks. Along with the constant access to great food, Y/n grew closely attached to the Paladins of Voltron. They were like a big family that bonded over caring for the young soldier. Alfor was like the worried dad, Trigal was the savage aunt, Blaytz was the teasing older brother, Gyrgan was like the weird uncle everyone liked and Zarkon, although Y/n didn’t see much of him, was like the wise grandfather. Alfor believed it was inappropriate (rather unsafe) for Allura to get too involved with the paladins, but the princess got all the gossip from her loyal friend.

Even as just an adolescent, Y/n had quite the number of skills under her belt including but not limited to being able to master the metamorphic properties of her bayard and being able to take apart and rebuild her Explorer with her eyes closed.

She managed to thrive happily under the Golden Age in the universe’s history thanks to the peace Voltron brought. The days spent away from the royal family was usually spent helping the Legendary Defender while exploring new solar systems or going through vigorous training. Life couldn’t be better.

 

But everything changed when the Galrans attacked.

The universe learned the hard way that although quintessence is a vital part in Altean technology, overexposure could corrupt the mind, body and soul. This led quickly to the breaking up of Voltron, ending the familial bond that was created among all the five paladins.

 

Once an all-out war broke out, Y/n was practically glued to the princess Allura’s side under King Alfor’s orders. Not that she minded, of course, the princess grew to be her closest friend. But each fibre of the soldier’s body longed to go into battle alongside those who she held dearly, maybe try (beat) talk some sense into Zarkon if she got the chance. Her prized Explorer, created to discover new planets and civilizations peacefully, had to be fitted with weapons for war.

Coran, the king’s adviser, would tell Y/n and Allura stories of adventures the leaders had before they were born. The stories evoked mixed feelings, but made the h/c girl realize that the usually gentle and esteemed princess held an incredible bitterness towards Zarkon and his kind.

Y/n did however have a feeling that the full story wasn’t being told by the ginger male, but she didn’t press for details. However much she were close to the paladins, Coran was closer for a lot longer.

Alfor did not appear fully willing to fight Zarkon and his empire, in the soldier’s opinion. This hesitation however proved to be fatal.

 

The black paladin was ruthless in his attacks upon Altea and its solar system after his own funeral taking all who witnessed by surprise. Y/n managed to assist the remaining royal family and adviser in reaching the Castle of Lions safely before the whole planet could be destroyed, diverting the attention of as many battle ships that she could.

 

“Get back in the hangar, Y/n!” the Altean in question managed to hear her King’s urgent order as the vehicle shook violently after a direct hit. Just as Y/n were about to (politely) protest, the smell of smoke hit her sensitive nostrils. Alarms blared and the usual blue monitors turned red, notifying her of the significant damage done.

“Quiznack,” the pilot cursed as she dove and spun with considerably less grace than usual to avoid any more fire due to the gaping hole where one of the engines should be. Y/n continued to curse as she gripped the handles tighter, flying way too quickly towards the safety of the hangar.

With gritted teeth she tried to slow down, bracing herself for a bad landing. The ship skidded roughly against the castle floor, launching sparks and the awful noise of broken metal against metal filled the air. Seeing that she won’t be able to stop her ship, Y/n made the quick decision of electing herself from the doomed vessel seconds before it crashed into the wall.

“Y/n?!” she heard her name being cried out by the princess through her helmet.  
“I-I’m alright, Allura, where are you now?” she reassured shakily, turning her back on the burning ruins of her beloved Explorer to run to the door.  
“We’re in the control room, please hurry.”

Running while the whole ship shook from enemy fire wasn’t easy but soon enough, Y/n arrived at the ship’s control room. The soldier was taken aback however as she saw two cryo-pods being slowly lowered to the ground with familiar silhouettes inside. She turned slowly to her King at the controls, gingerly stepping forward.  
“King…Alfor what is-?”  
“We have no chance against Zarkon’s forces and we cannot let him have Voltron,” he interrupted her solemnly, looking defeated and a decepheeb older. Alfor walked towards his subject until he could place his hand on her shoulder. Y/n realized just then how much she was trembling as her breath hitched.

“Y/n L/n, I must ask of you one last favor before I must leave to hide the red lion,” Alfor began seriously before his eyes softened, tears making them glossy. He brought his free hand to her jaw and the girl felt an overwhelming sense of drowsiness. “Please look after Allura for me…”

Then everything turned black…


	2. But it's feeling just like every other morning before...

Y/n’s eyes flew open as her forced slumber was abruptly put to an end. With brows knitted, the Altean looked around quickly, trying to make sense of what the quiznack was going on. Her instincts kicked in as her (dominant hand) swiftly had her bayard firmly in her grasp.

Remembering the order her king assigned to her seemingly seconds before hand, tears stung the soldiers eyes as she forced her stiff legs to move towards her princess.

She eyed the five strange aliens wearily, morphing her bayard into a broadsword, glinting in a hopefully threatening way in case one of aliens wants to try something.  
“Allura...what’s going on?” she murmured as she reached the princess’s side, especially eager to know how the intruders got here. 

“-and I’ll get Y/n here to take you out like that!” the girl in question had her attention drawn to Coran and one of the intruders when her name was mentioned with a snap of the red head’s fingers. Her shoulders tensed and she held her sword tighter as she felt more eyes on her.  
“Y/n? That’s a human name,” the smallest (human?) newcomer remarked curiously, adjusting their glasses.  
“Girl, I’ll gladly let you take me-“ 

“It can’t be!” the male who Coran was talking to was suddenly (thankfully) interrupted by the princess.  
“What is it, princess?” Coran asked, noticing her distressed look.  
“We’ve been asleep for ten thousand years!” Allura revealed, causing the hearts of the remaining Altean’s to plummet.  
“Wh-what?” Y/n breathed out, stunned as the princess continued.  
“Planet Altea and all the planets in our solar system have been destroyed. Our entire civilization...” she trailed off, unable to continue her sentence. Y/n chewed on the inside of her cheek and placed her free hand on her friend’s shoulder for support. A lot must’be changed in ten thousand years. Everyone they previously knew… The broadsword was willed to disappear by its user as Allura clenched her fists tightly. 

“Zarkon,” she managed to express all her bitterness and rage in that one name, sending shivers down Y/n’s spine. Her attentive eyes noticed the tallest, most-likely-a-threat intruder’s shoulders stiffen at the sound of the Galran name.

“Zarkon?”

The Altean pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes in suspicion and mild interest as her princess- well, I suppose she’s your queen now huh?- continued, seeing as none of the non-Alteans seemed to recognize the name.  
“He was the king of the Galra. A vile creature and an enemy to all free people.” Y/n shared a knowing, pained look with Coran who tugged at his collar a bit.

"I remember now...I was his prisoner," the suspicious human confessed, making the Alteans' eyes widen.  
“That cant be true, he cant possibly be alive!" Y/n found herself blurting out. Being brought back from the dead is one thing, being completely immortal is another, and neither of them sat well with the (h/c)ette.  
“I can't explain it, but it's true. He's searching for a weapon called Voltron,” He continued, making the girl's head spin. If Zarkon is alive then does that mean-? no, don't do this to yourself Y/n. Whatever state Zarkon is in was at the price of his sanity. in that case I hope the others died peacefully, cleanly. The soldier got lost in her thoughts, eyes getting blurry as the princess explained how Voltron was the only thing that could stop the emperor, the universe’s only hope. 

Coran cleared his throat and shifted towards his fellow Alteans, noticing the thick air of borderline anguish beginning to form.  
“Well then! I suppose some introductions are in order, hm?” He encouraged, placing his hands on each of the girls’ shoulders, dispelling the negativity for now. Y/n managed a small, grateful smile towards the ginger, nodding in agreement, taking this time to take off her helmet and putting it to the side. She did her best to not mind how her hair poofed with static electricity.

The alien who she deemed as the leader of the bunch seemed happy with that arrangement.  
"You're right, sorry for not doing this sooner. My name is Shiro, these are Hunk, Pidge, Lance and Keith. We are humans from planet Earth," he explained, gesturing to each human as their respective names were called out. Such odd names...

Y/n jumped a bit at the princess’s squeak from Coran abruptly clamping his hands down on her shoulders.  
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all! This is princess Allura of Altea, daughter of King Alfor who created the lion that brought you here!” he lavishly presented, making Allura a bit flustered and draining the blood of the remaining Altean for what was to come.

Her shoulders stiffened as the ginger placed a hand on the smallest female’s head. “This is lieutenant Y/n of the Altean fleet who fought side by side with the original paladins of Voltron!” he continued, each word making Y/n’s pointed ears reddened as she bowed her head lightly in some general direction.

He tugged on the left end of his mustache, stepping forth for his grand identity reveal. “And I am Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe, the royal family adviser. Now I shall be back with some Altean nourishment!” He quickly finished with an added flourish and turned to exit the control room.

…

A positively awkward silence followed as the princess quickly turned to the control panel. 

To soothe her nerves and to distract herself a little, Y/n began to pop her knuckles silently, finding her joints a lot stiffer than they seemed. Well, being still for ten thousand years would make ones joints stiff, she reasoned. 

One by one her fingers popped and felt immediate release as she flexed them a bit. Much better. But in her peripheral vision, she noticed the yellow one- Hunk, grew more and more uncomfortable with each noise. 

It was her turn to tense up as the fellow from before who was talking to Coran slid into her line of sight, making some sort of hand gesture. Her brows creased as she familiarized the shape, what was this? A threat? Was he threatening to shoot her? 

Quicker than you could say ‘Balmera’ a pistol was in the (overly) prepared soldier’s hands, aimed at the no longer smirking male. 

Chaos quickly followed…

To say that she was embarrassed was an understatement. Y/n was positively mortified. Damn these new cultural differences, making her feel dumb and old. How was she to know that the ‘finger-guns’ were used as a human greeting? 

As soon as the gun was pointed at him, Lance’s ‘lady-killer’ smirk fell. He wasn’t keen on getting his ass handed to him by both of the pretty aliens so soon in their extraterrestrial adventure. 

Hunk jumped back behind Shiro, letting out a yelp as the scary lady now had a gun. Pidge snorted loudly before failing to contain gleeful snickers. Oh how she had longed for someone to stay strong through the flirt’s antics at the garrison but this was just marvellous. She could tell she would get along swimmingly with these aliens. 

Shiro began to take slow steps to stand between the two, hands up in order to try keep the peace. Both Kieth and Allura made half-assed attempts at calming the situation, both guilty of being extremely amused.

“Woah! Woah- h-hey I know I’m drop dead-“  
“Lance! You’re not making your situation any better!”  
“Ohmygodohmygodpleasedontshootohgodwe’realldoingtodie!”  
“Oh my god please do-“

“Pidge! I am sorry for whatever he did-“  
“Hey!”  
“-but there’s no need for pointing guns at each other!”

Y/n’s grip tightened on the pistol, not keen on answering to the new people, but she wasn’t too keen on actually pulling the trigger, just... she was only making sure he wasn’t a threat to the princess, that’s all. Maybe only a warning shot was in order.

Poor Coran came in with two plates full of food goo just in time to stop the panic. She glanced over at him before willing her pistol to be gone, awkwardly deciding to cross her arms and rock on the balls of her feet. More than most things, she didn’t want to disappoint the cool space uncle.

“What the qui- actually nevermind,” the redhead dismissed cheerfully as the tense atmosphere was eased, as if this sort of situation happened daily. The nervous human still kept his distance but the smallest one came a little bit closer.

Y/n glanced over at her princess before greatfully accepting the plate of goo Coran offered, beginning to occupy herself with eating. He turned to Allura next. She glanced up at the male but turned her attention quickly back to the monitor. 

“You must eat, princess! It has been ten thousand years,” he coaxed her. No wonder Y/n’s stomach felt like a black hole.  
“I’m not hungry,” she dismissed stubbornly.  
“Woah, ten thousand years...that’s like a thousand plus ten!” Lance mused, recovering from the previous uh incident.  
"That's times ten," Keith corrected bluntly.  
"Whatever, drop-out," the Cuban retorted, mood soured once more as the two glared at eachother like pissed five-year-olds.

“I haven’t eaten since breakfast and I’m starving.”  
“Yeah, but you’ve thrown-up like five times.”  
“Mmmm, good point,” Hunk agreed with Pidge before helping himself to Allura’s portion of goo albeit reluctantly.

 

"I can't believe your people created such advanced technology ten-thousand years ago. This must've been a wonderful planet," Shiro complimented in the hopes of lightening the mood. He really needed a break, even though he has been a father of four for a couple of hours.

Y/n's shoulders stiffened and her head lowered a bit as his statement provoked the exact opposite reaction the leader intended. She changed from having her arms crossed to practically hugging herself, her fingers gripping tightly onto her white and gold armour.

“Yes...it was. But now it's gone, and we're the only Alteans left," Coran stated mournfully, making the soldier's throat tighten. Don't cry, don't you go crying in front of strangers. That’s the worst thing you could do.

Before she could get caught up in her emotions, Y/n's ear twitched at the soft sound of squeaking. Her feet took her to the pod the princess came out of. Once she peaked inside, a smile began to spread across her face. 

“It looks like we’re not the last ones after all,” she mused softly as she picked up the four mice, showing them off to the embracing Alteans. They squeaked happily at the sight of Allura, showing surprisingly diverse personality traits for rodents.

 

They gripped tightly onto Y/n’s hands when the alarm blare and the monitor’s blue hue turned red with urgency. 

“A Galra battle ship has set its tracker to us!” Coran revealed as everyone gathered around the image of impending doom. It was only one ship though, no problem for the trained soldier. Just one blast of her ship’s-

Hang on a tic, her ship should still be in the hanger…all destroyed in a heap of scrap-metal. Y/n deflated a bit as that meant no battle-ship destroying today. She also wasn’t ready to trust these newcomers. They weren’t trained, they weren’t leaders of great cultures, they weren’t the original paladins of Voltron and that’s it. How could they be the defenders of the universe if they’ve never defended anyone before? No replacements necessary, not so soon after their deaths. Well, disregarding the fact that they’ve been asleep for ten-thousand years, for her it was way too early to be moving on.

“How did they find us?” Allura broke her stubborn train of thought.  
“I’m not sure, but I bet it’s Keith’s fault,” Lance put in his (pretty useless) input on the event.  
“Say whatever you’ve gotta say to make yourself feel better,” the mullet-haired teen threw some sass right back, seemingly forcing himself not to start a fight, “after getting us stuck on the other side of a wormhole!” Oh wait, never mind, Keith began pointing fingers.  
“I’ll stick you in a wormhole!” the Cuban retorted quickly, stepping closer to his enemy in the situation. 

Yep, definitely not good candidates for paladins of Voltron.

“Stow it, cadets! This is no time to place blame. It’s time to work as a team,” Shiro broke the two apart before they could start throwing hands. Well, maybe he as a chance of being a paladin, but still, it’s too soon. “How long before they arrive?” He turned to the Alteans, hoping for some time to think of the right plan of action.

“At their speed? Oh, well, let’s see…carry the two…I’d say a couple of days,” Coran announced confidently after doing some calculations in his head. Y/n raised a brow sceptically but didn’t say anything in the hopes that he was correct. With a little alchemy Alfor taught her, she might be able to fix her ship in time.

“Good, let them come. By the time they get here you five would’ve reformed Voltron and together, we will destroy Zarkon’s empire!” Allura proclaimed. The soldier nodded at first but once it dawned of her what the princess was implying, sense of dread formed in her stomach. She didn’t dare question her princess in front of others, that would undermine her authority and provoke only trouble. 

But Y/n did not approve of all these changes. This was wrong..they’re not the paladins of Voltron. She tried her best to conceal her feelings of discomfort and skepticism that this plan would work. She could only hope that she’d be able to talk to her friend thoroughly about this and come to a better arrangement. Time was not on the young soldier’s side.


	3. Now I wonder what my life is gonna mean if it's gone...

“Princess, there are four of these lions left. How are we going to find them?” Shiro asked. Instead of giving him a direct answer, the princess led them to a different room with the only source of light being the large Balmeran crystal that hung over a podium.

She handed the mice back to Y/n with care before stepping on the podium and closing her eyes, making the blue crystal glow a bit brighter.  
“King Alfor connected the Lions to Allura’s life force. She alone is the key to the Lions’ whereabouts,” Coran explained with pride as the soldier let the mice finish off her food-goo.

Once the princess opened her eyes, a 3D map of the known universe was projected all around them. Y/n couldn’t hide the amused twitch in her lip at the humans’ awed reactions.  
“These are...coordinates,” Pidge noted as she took a closer look on the moving image of the Black Lion. “The Black Lion looks like it’s in the same location as the Blue Lion.”

“Look at your primitive synapses firing away in their little brain cage!” Coran complimented(?), leaning over to the female human.  
“Very observant. That’s because the Black Lion is in the castle,” the princess explained.  
“To keep the Black Lion our of Zarkon’s hands, King Alfor locked it in the castle,” the male Altean elaborated. “It can only be freed if the other four lions are present.” Y/n was content to let the other two explain the situation as she watched over the mice, thinking of a way to excuse herself so that she could fix her ship.

“As you have found, the Lions chose their pilots. It isn’t a mystical bond and cannot be forced. The quintessence of the pilot is mirrored in their Lion. Together, they form something greater than science can explain,” the princess elaborated on the little information that the humans had already. There was a heavy weight of responsibility with each syllable she pronounced as she made eye contact with each paladin, one at a time. 

With a swipe of her hand, Allura manipulated the map. 

 

“The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron,” she began to describe the traits of each paladin, assigning a lion to each of the humans.

This felt wrong, Y/n thought as her insides churned and boiled with discomfort. They were not the right paladins, the true paladins of Voltron.

This shouldn’t have been happening, but it was. The old paladins were…gone, they perished under the hands of one of their own. For the sake of the universe, they had to move on. She had to move on and let go of the past.

She knew this, but then why was it so difficult? Why did it hurt so much to just accept it? Allura and Coran did it so why couldn’t she? She just needed more time, time that they simply did not have.

The Altean managed to snap out of it as a small-scaled version of Voltron was projected between the two species and the darkened windows were unveiled to let in light from outside.

Shiro began to give orders to the members of his team to recover the Lions as soon as possible, leaving the Red Paladin behind to await his Lion’s coordinates.

 

“In the meantime, I’ll get the castle’s defences ready. They’ll be sorely needed,” the princess stated, making the soldier inwardly sigh in relief. Now was her chance.  
“I’ll ready a pod and load the coordinates so you can reach the Green Lion,” Coran announced. Y/n nodded slowly and stayed with her arms crossed, about to be lost in thought again before she noticed the silence that followed. She blinked and noticed all eyes on her, patiently waiting for her to tune in.

“O-oh I’ll…fix my ship,” she stumbled over her words, not expecting to have to say what contribution she’ll make. Gah now she was all flustered. Y/n jumped more than she should have at the male Altean’s firm pat on her shoulder. 

 

“Great! Let’s get to then, this way everybody but Kieth and the princess!” He chirped, leading ahead towards the hangar with no sign of releasing the young woman and four of the five paladins behind us. 

 

…

 

For a large part of the (unnecessarily) long journey, the only sounds that were heard were their footsteps. The rest was awkward small talk to fill the equally as awkward silence. Y/n was almost approached by the Blue Paladin once Coran let her go but she had a feeling that his leader pulled him back by the hood. She caught on to the warning whisper and the snicker of the smaller human. 

She also couldn’t help but have noticed the continuous worried glances of her friend. The soldier guessed that worry was the reason why he wasn’t filling in the silence as usual. 

 

“I’m fine,” Y/n murmured under her breath despite her body language contradicted her words. Her reactions were perfectly normal for someone who lost their entire civilisation, including her friends and family, were they not? 

Coran placed his hand hand on her head and gently ruffled up her hair.  
“I know,” he muttered back, holding a lot more depth for the female to interpret. 

 

With a newfound flourish and bounce to his step, he turned to the humans and walked backwards to commence better face-to-face conversation.

“So! Ever seen an Altean Explorer before?” He asked like a host. Y/n raised an eyebrow but didn’t question him before changing her focus to make sure the ol fool wouldn’t trip.

“An Explorer? I can’t say that I have,” Shiro answered, happy to have something break the tension.  
“Altean Explorer,” Hunk tested the name on his tongue, scratching his cheek. “Sounds like some fancy ship? Or dish?”  
“Is it a nickname for one of the Lions?” Pidge pondered, running conspiracy theories in her sharp mind.  
“Oh absolutely, yes I’ve seen tones of those in my time,” the Alteans were amused the most at the Blue Paladin’s input, even going as far as making the female snort.

“I’m sure you have! They were made to discover and, well, explore! Many of them were built and designed by King Alfor but one was built out of the same material as the Lions that is piloted by Y/n here. She used it to travel to- how many different systems again? Was it 34? 43?” Coran elbowed his friend repeatedly as he guessed random numbers, earning a stronger elbow back and a growing smile from the soldier.

“It was 87,” she finally confessed with a hint of rightfully rooted pride, maybe some smugness too. Her shoulders eased up a bit as they reached the hangar, even as the humans moved to walk beside the Alteans. Everyone was beginning to feel more comfortable.

 

Maybe this could work, Y/n thought to herself as they had to start their assigned duties. There was no time for questions as Coran put in the coordinates and Lance and Hunk entered the Blue Lion reluctantly.

At the sight of her precious baby all torn apart, bent and broken, Y/n nearly yelled. But since the pod wasn’t quite ready for the oldest and youngest paladins, the two humans followed her to see the great Explorer. So she settled with a distressed, exhausted sigh in order to not damage her pride.

The once sleek build was crumpled at the front and left side where it collided roughly with the wall. The right wing-like end was completely destroyed and blackened by the exploding engine. A couple of holes littered the main body where Galra cruisers fired, some larger than others. In all fairness, it could’ve been worse. But it could’ve been a lot better too if she had stuck the landing.

Pidge whistled lowly, stepping a bit closer to the wreck.  
“Jeez, what happened to it?” she asked, not necessarily expecting an answer. As someone who has a love for all things metal, she felt a pain in her heart at the sight of the wrecked ship.

“War happened,” the Altean replied without thinking, rubbing her eyes a bit at the thought of all the work she had to do to get it remotely back to normal. She surprised herself at how tired and wry her own voice sounded.

Y/n approached the wreckage, looking inside a particularly gaping hole.  
“Mmmm…the main skeleton of the ship seems intact…” she hummed mostly to herself, the majorly empty interior echoing her thoughts back. Most of what was inside was either burnt to ashes or broken to unrecognisable smithereens.

“Do you need any help with it?” Shiro asked with the best intentions, admiring whatever was left to admire. It wasn’t every day that one saw such a relic from a different culture.  
The soldier resisted the urge to roll her eyes with some reluctance.

“No, thank you. I can handle this, you have your assignment to get the Green Lion,” her answer was a tad colder than necessary but the paladin paid no mind to it. He knew that they all had to be particularly sensitive and mindful towards the quiet Altean. He could only guess what this scale of loss during such little time could do to a person. Pidge was too busy marvelling at the exquisite alien technology to notice anything.

“Alright, c’mon Pidge, let’s see if Coran has the pod ready. He might need some help,” he coaxed the tech savvy to leave the Altean be, sensing they weren’t quite welcome.

Y/n’s fists clenched as she heard their footsteps started to grow quieter.  
“We don’t need your help…we don’t want your help,” the Altean borderline snarled under her breath, shoulders trembling. None of them were needed. They were fine before those nosy humans showed up.

Running a hand through her hair, she took a few deep breaths to try calm down as she heard the pod take off. No, it wasn’t fair to blame them. This is what life was going to be like for her, so it was up to her to grow a pair and get used to it. Y/n kept this mindset playing through her head in her mother’s strict voice. No time now to think about the past like an idiot. Now was the time to fix the mistakes of the past in the present. Now was the time to get to work.

 

…

 

While working on fixing what she could, Y/n hardly noticed the passage of time. Whenever there was a part too ruined for repair, she’d throw it in the scrap pile to be replaced. A 3D, full-scale model of her ship was projected so she could know for certain what goes where. 

The process was easy but quite time consuming since she had to carry crates full of spare parts from the opposite side of the castle. Even with her Altean strength, the girl could only carry so many at once to be able to fit through the doorways. 

On one of the last of such journeys Y/n managed to start lift three crates stacked on top of each other when she felt something collide with her as she turned a corner. Her breath hitched in her throat as she managed to steady herself and the boxes while hearing an unfamiliar grunt followed by a thump. Were the ‘paladins’ back already?

She held the crates to the side so she could see what she bumped into, only to see the quieter human sitting on the floor. Good, if she was going to be asked if she needed help one last time she felt that she would scream. Y/n blinked in surprise and felt a little guilty. 

The load was switched to be held with one had as she held out the freed one to help him up as a silent apology. At least this one won’t talk as much, she mused. The raven haired male seemed to hesitate a bit before taking the offered hand.

“Thanks..” Keith muttered, eyeing the unsafe looking stack. Y/n shook her head a bit.

“I made you fall, it was only fair for me to help you up,” she found herself responding bluntly. It wasn’t like she wanted to stop for a chat anyway and it seemed that he thought the same. 

“The princess told me to look for you,” he spoke after a bit of silence. Okay maybe not, never mind. It seemed like Y/n was reading him wrong consistently. She raised a brow slightly and held the crates with both hands now. 

“What is the matter?” She asked, beginning to think of various different things that could be amiss. Her eyes scrutinised the human for any hints to what happened. He just folded his arms stiffly, dark eyes looking to the side of the Altean. 

“I asked her if there was a…training room or something that I could use while we wait. I’m useless otherwise,” he mumbled the last bit under his breath but Y/n heard him just fine. “She told me that you knew where one was.” She was taken off-guard at his opinion of his situation and how he wanted to be of use. 

The soldier eyed him up and down as he still didn’t look at her, and she noticed a small sheath strapped to his hip that she didn’t see before. Her brow raised a bit as she looked at him in a mildly different light. 

“Are you a human version of a soldier?” She ignored his statement to ask a new question. Now it was his turn to be caught off guard. 

Keith snapped his gaze back to her before looking down at his dagger. The Altean was less convinced of that fact the longer the silence continued.

“…of sorts…I guess, I trained as a pilot on Earth but Shiro taught me how to fight,” he finally admitted. 

Y/n nodded slowly, reminding herself of the job she had to do before she could ask more about the fighting he did. Huh, with this human she found herself talking more, maybe there was hope left for the others.

“I’ll take you to the training room. If I find Coran I’ll tell him to alert you when your friends return,” she stated as she began walking past Keith. Luckily his destination was en route of the hangar. 

She politely ignored the fact that he stayed put for a second or two in thought before swiftly following after. 

“Thanks,” he spoke with a bit more certainty, looking at the alien with a shadow of a smile once he caught up. Y/n glanced at him before looking forward at the crates she held.

“No problem...”


	4. The cars are moving like a half a mile an hour and I...

“Once you start a training session, the room monitors your vitals and keeps them logged for the next time in order to monitor improvements,” Y/n explained as she began to set up the advanced system that was offline for about ten-thousand years after setting down the crates. With this distraction, the soldier tried her best not to be hostile towards the new Red Paladin. She was tested however at how he didn’t seem to be listening since he was in awe at the technology.

 

He nodded a bit when she was silent, getting the hint that he should probably respond to the testy Altean.

“Alright, how do I begin?” Keith questioned, taking off his jacket and putting it to the side (as careless whisper plays in the distance).

 

For a few moments, Y/n was silent as some final adjustments were made at the main control panel.

“Commence training sequence, level one, stand by,” she commanded loud and clear before a hole opened up in the ceiling in front of the two. The tall training ‘gladiator’ gracefully jumped down and landed in a fighting stance.

 

The human quickly brandished his dagger, starting to question his life choices.

 

“The Gladiator is set at the easiest level and is voice activated. Once you defeat it, it’ll learn what level you’re capable of,” Y/n continued, opening up a shelf of different weapons that extended from the wall behind the droid. She figured he may get tired of using the close-range weapon, especially since the robot had a staff. “Whenever you’re ready, just say ‘start training level’. If you wish to stop, say ‘end training sequence’. Make sure you speak clearly or it may not detect your voice,” she cautioned carefully. “At this level if any blood is shed at all, the droid will shut down,” she assured him, remembering how the bots used to creep her out even when she was training with others. She had to leave him alone since the Explorer won’t fix itself.

 

Once everything was set and ready, the Altean willed the monitor to sink into the ground to allow more space before she turned to pick up her cargo.

 

“Thanks again for this, Y/n,” she heard Keith say as she walked past him. The soldier didn’t stop as she let herself smile a little at the gratitude shown.

 

“You’re welcome, Keith. Don’t shank yourself,” she responded without thinking. Her shoulders tensed at the odd expression of ‘good luck’ that became a habit after training with Alfor that escaped her mouth unwillingly.

 

Not noticing her distress or discomfort, the human found himself snorting at the unexpected advice. Could you even call that advice?

“…I’ll keep that in mind,” he responded with a slight smirk before starting the training session like he was taught.

 

…

 

The quiznack was wrong with you? You were so close to be used to one out of the five new paladins! So quiznacking close but you just had to let old habits live on. You just had to remind yourself of the dead father of your best friend. Good quiznacking job, five stars, ten out of ten, award winning mess up. This went through Y/n’s head as she replayed her mistake over and over again on her way to the hangar. Stars, don’t shank yourself, stupid.

 

She bit her lip hard and took deep breaths through her nose in a large effort to calm herself. He didn’t seem to notice her reaction to the phrase, thank the stars. Hopefully she got that speculation right…

 

The Altean was snapped out of her thoughts as she barely stopped herself from walking into Coran.

 

“Woah there! Y/n? Thank goodness, the others have found the Green and Yellow Paladins. You should head over to the control room,” he chirped, giving the female a good pat on the back.

 

Y/n hesitated before putting the crates down to the side.

“Alright, you should get Keith then. He’s in the training room. I’ll meet you there,” she confirmed and the ginger nodded with a salute before swiftly heading in the direction that Y/n came from.

 

“I’ll be only a tic!” was the last comment she heard before the soldier began to jog to get to the princess quickly.

 

…

 

When she arrived, the paladins were in the middle of exchanging their ‘war stories’. Allura noticed her friend’s silent entrance and went over to her.

 

“Did you manage to fix your Explorer?” she questioned hopefully, making Y/n grimace a bit and rub the back of her neck.

“There is a lot left to be done and there are some missing parts I’d have to buy...somewhere,” she admitted with a shake of her head, not wanting to disappoint the princess. She just smiled at the shorter female and gave her a look of confidence.

“That’s alright, I’m sure you’ll have it fixed in no time.”

 

Y/n managed a weak smile at the words of encouragement and heard the remaining two members of their odd group arrive. Shiro seemed to notice this as well and turned to Coran.

 

“Have you located the Red Lion?” He asked, getting the complete attention of the whole room.

 

“Ah yes, about that, there is a bit of good news and bad news,” the male Altean confirmed in a way that unsettled Y/n. What bad news could this be?

 

“The good news is, the Red Lion’s nearby,” he began, tugging at one end of his mustache. “The bad news is, it’s on board that Galra ship now orbiting Arus,” he dropped the bomb shell, making the soldier’s eyes widen.

 

“Wait we’re Arus, they’re already here?” she blurted, not realising that her words would begin a panic among the humans.

“Yes well, I guess my calculations were a bit off. Finger counting, it’s more of an art really than a science,” the red head admitted, doing nothing to ease the fear ebbing into new paladins.

 

The tension rose as the large transmitted face of the Galra commander showed on the screen. Despite knowing that the screen couldn’t do any physical harm, Y/n stepped between in and the princess, bayard raised and ready.

 

“Princess Allura, this is commander Sendak of the Galra Empire. I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the known universe,” the one-eyed Galran introduced, making the Altean soldier’s blood boil. “I am here to confiscate the Lions. Turn them over to me, or I will destroy your planet.” He finished the threat, his image disappearing before anyone could respond.

 

“Alright, let’s not panic,” Shiro began to address his new crew carefully.

“Not panic?-“ Y/n ignored the rest of the obviously panicking paladin and turned to her princess.

 

“Allura, I can take a pod and sneak on board-“

“No way, you are not going there alone, not without your Explorer,” the white haired royalty shot down her idea before it could even begin. “I won’t risk the death of any more Alteans.” Quiznack, that final statement made any attempt to persist impossible.

 

“-now is the perfect time to panic!” she caught onto the end of Hunk’s fear induced ramble.

 

“Wait! This castle has a particle barrier we can activate,” Allura recalled, putting their minds at ease for a moment before Lance opened his mouth.

 

“Girl, you’ve already activated my par-“

“Lance!” thankfully Shiro saw this coming and interrupted him before he could finish. He didn’t want a repeat of their first interaction.

 

Coran pulled up a diagram of the Galran fleet’s new machinery.

“The particle barrier won’t hold Sendak’s ion cannon forever,” he noticed, giving the soldier ideas for upgrades on her ship. “The Galra technology must’ve advanced since we fought them last.”

“That is to be expected since that was ten-thousand years ago…” Y/n reasoned, looking at Coran’s diagram intently.

 

“Panic now?” the yellow paladin (unhelpfully) suggested.

“No. We’ve just got to figure out our plan of action, and figure it out quickly,” Shiro assured in a way that wasn’t quite assuring because of the time limit.

 

“I say we pop through a worm hole and live to fight another day,” the flirt began a series of cowardly ideas and arguments. Lance and Hunk were keen on leaving while Keith and Pidge were hellbent on staying. Y/n stepped up to cover Allura’s ears when the Blue Paladin used an Altean curse word, incorrectly, but a curse word none the less.

 

“Everybody stop!” at their leader’s intervention, the split team glared at the opposing side like fighting children. “Princess Allura, these are your lions. You’ve dealt with the Galran Empire before. You know what we’re dealing with better than any of us. What do you think the best plan of action is?”

Y/n was tense as the princess and Coran left her with the Paladins. Unsure of what to do, Allura was brought by the ginger to the stored memories of King Alfor.

 

The soldier paced anxiously in front of the door as the humans talked amongst themselves. Their nerves only worsened the Altean’s worry for her friend. She probably wasn’t worried enough for the Galra ship. Quiznack, she nearly wanted to be captured so she’d have a chance to hit that quiznacking Zendack. Maybe she might get sent to Zarkon himself afterwards.

 

She gnawed at the edge of her nail as she continued to wear down the floor, barely noticing the awkwardly approaching Blue Paladin. Bewildered, she pretended not to notice him taking the longest sidesteps he could manage (which were quite long, she had to admit) in order to get to her side quickly and ‘subtly’.

 

The Altean exchanged a questioning glance with the only other human who noticed- the small, green one- who simply shrugged, watching the scene play out with mild interest. Pidge was secretly hoping for a similar scene to the newly dubbed ‘finger-gun flop’.

 

Seeing as he was obviously struggling to find something to say that wouldn’t be seen as some form of threat, Y/n decided to put the poor soul out of his misery. With a small sigh through her nose, she turned to face him completely, causing the Cuban boy to stiffen. He even took a step back a bit when she bowed her head.

 

“I apologise for misinterpreting your…human hand signals, I only wished to protect the princess,” she stated stiffly as she used years of diplomacy skills to her advantage.

 

Lance blinked and coughed to get over his previous nerves that still lingered in his stomach.

“N-nah, don’t worry about it, I should’ve known that the ol’ finger-guns weren’t for everyone...” he waved off her apology, trying to sound reassuring but ended up trailing off awkwardly. He did, however, feel relaxed enough to step a little bit closer. “You uh, did a good job protecting the princess anyway.”

 

Well, this was unexpected, she thought. Y/n glanced at the door that Allura went through. She chewed on the inside of her cheek as she tried to appreciate his words.

 

“It’s what I was born to do…” she murmured, almost to assure herself, catching the human off-guard. Now they noticed that the others were silent, trying not to be too obviously staring at the two and eavesdropping. She shook her head a bit from that thought and hesitated before making the hand gesture from earlier; index finger pointing at Lance, thumb up and all the other fingers curled. “Is it some form of greeting?”

 

The male’s cheeks pinkened as he rubbed the back of his neck, faintly hearing Hunk and Pidge’s snickering. He chuckled a little nervously, a sheepish grin forming.

“Eheh, something like that, yeah. It’s uh…like a gun to uh…aim for the attention of whoever you’re pointing at!” Smooth Lance, smooth.

 

Y/n blinked and nodded slowly in understanding, interest starting to peak. This is what she loved most about exploring new planets; learning about different cultures. Sure, more often than not she got confused and mixed up one culture for another, but the learning was the fun part anyways.

 

An amused smile began to form as she formed the pistol from earlier in her other hand, holding it loosely in the hopes for the jest to be understood.

“Wouldn’t aiming an actual gun grab their attention a lot easier?”

 

Hunk quickly scurried over to diffuse the situation, laughing nervously before anyone could appreciate her joke. Better luck next time.

“A-ahhah, there are plenty of other human hand greetings that are far less violent and scary if you take them literally!”

 

Pidge waltzed right over a lot calmer, placing a hand on her chin in thought.

“I don’t know about that. High-fives are basically hand slaps and fist-bumps are like punches,” she corrected before Lance leaned with his elbow resting on her head. Just a tad too short for the perfect arm rest.

“Yeah but a slap or a punch is less violent than straight up shooting someone,” he reasoned, making the alien more confused, the gun disappearing much to the Samoan’s relief.

“So…humans greet each other with different variations of violent hand gestures, but not actually…doing them?” she clarified slowly, making sure she got this new information correctly.

 

The female human shrugged and stepped closer to the other girl in the group so her head could be liberated.

“Basically, yeah.” Humans are odd…

 

…

 

The remaining minutes waiting for the Princess were spent teaching Y/n the previously named human greetings. So far, she preferred the finger-guns. She ended up causing the Blue Paladin pain with the high-five due to neither species knowing the strength of the other. As a result, fist-pumps weren’t even tried for fear of broken knuckles.

 

The Green Paladin patted her shoulder after a fit of laughter, wiping some happy tears from the corner of her eye.

“Practice makes perfect, don’t worry, you’ll get there eventually.”

 

The other two humans mostly watched with different variations of amusement, but both began talking about what to do about the Galra ship.

 

Y/n was struggling to contain her laughter as she apologised to Lance for probably the hundredth time when the door finally opened. Her eyes widened as she saw the serious look on Allura’s face as she entered with her hair tied up in a bun and her dress replaced with her uniform.

 

The light atmosphere created in the tense time was dispersed for the most part, but luckily the panic was eased. Coran looked curiously at the soldier yet decided not to question how she seemed more at ease with the paladins. The royal Altean turned to the Black Paladin with a plan in mind.

 

“You five Paladins were brought here for a reason. The Voltron Lions were meant to be piloted by you and you alone,” she began as she made her way to the pedestal, each word lifting the spirits of the humans but sinking that of the young soldier. “We must fight and keep fighting until we defeat Zarkon. It is our destiny.”

 

Y/n had to admit the confidence in Allura’s words made her swell with pride and admiration. It also made her wonder what exactly Coran meant by consulting her father about a plan, what exactly happened.

 

“Voltron is the universe’s only hope,” the princess pressed onwards with more of a sense of urgency and responsibility in her words, making them weigh on their shoulders. “We are the universe’s only hope.”

 

“We’re with you, Princess,” Shiro spoke first for his newly formed and fragile team. The situation didn’t settle well with Y/n but she stayed silent. Now all she could do was wait and see how they will deal with only one Galra battle ship.


	5. Started staring at the passengers who're waving goodbye...

The group followed the princess into another one of the castle’s rooms. Light began to illuminate the five Paladin suits in their containment pods, all in their standard size.

“Your suits of armour,” Allura presented with pride as the newly employed paladins took a closer look with almost childlike awe.

 

“Princess, are you sure about this?” Y/n looked in surprise as Coran voiced her thoughts to the princess in a way that hopefully the humans couldn’t hear. “They aren’t exactly the best and the brightest the universe has to offer.” The soldier didn’t doubt that, but she could also think of a lot more reasons to be doubious.

“No,” the princess began to agree, almost making the other female snort. “But they’re all we’ve got.” That did not sit well with Y/n. She wasn’t quite sure what she felt about the new paladins, pity was definitely among the complex soup of emotions. Childish anger was another. It wasn’t fair…

 

“Boys, its time to suit up!” Shiro announced, glad that he wasn’t too old to enjoy the idea of dressing up like real superheroes. He expressed this joy internally anyways, he had a rep after all to maintain as a responsible leader.

 

 

The shortest Altean has to admit, the humans didn’t look half bad in their new uniforms. In fact, they actually seemed fit for the job, like they knew what they were doing. All happy, confident and shiny. Let’s see how long that’ll last.

Allura smiled encouragingly at the image and placed her hand on the blue panel, revealing four out of the five bayards. Y/n did a double-take and peered, almost offended, at where the black bayard should be. Would Zarkon still have it after all these years?

 

“The Bayard is the traditional weapon of the Paladins of Voltron,” the princess explained, unphased, as the arms floated towards their respected owner before raising a brow at her friend. “With a few exceptions of course. It takes a distinct shape for each paladin.”

 

Y/n grinned lightly back at her before turning to observe each human’s reaction when the bayard transformed to suit their needs and specific skills with amusement. Hunk was pleasantly surprised he had a large, canon-type gun while Lance enthusiastically earned a more comfortable shooter. Keith wielded a sword that automatically activated the shield in his other wrist. Pidge put her ‘cute’ bayard to good use right off the bat by literally shocking the Blue Paladin. He was fine, just a little burned. Shiro politely accepted that the Black bayard was lost with its Paladin.

 

Coran suddenly swooped next to the soldier, putting a hand on her shoulder confidently. Oh no.

 

“No need to worry, Paladins! Once this Galra ship is sorted, Y/n here shall help you master your Bayards since she is one her self!” he announced, making said ‘master’ gulp. She blinked owlishly up at him with wide eyes, not entirely sure what was going on.

“I-I am?” she spluttered to respond to both of the mans claims, caught off guard completely. Well…she was pretty good at using her Bayard, but she wouldn’t call herself a master and she definitely wouldn’t be able for teaching anybody anything.

 

“Well of course!” the ginger continued with a lot more enthusiasm than he had before when confronting the princess about his doubts. “Who else would be better to train new paladins than someone who trained and fought with the original ones? Someone who was practically family?” He encouraged with the best intentions in mind, meaning to boost the girl’s confidence. The ginger didn’t quite realise that it made the cold feeling in their gut spread and grew heavier.

Y/n swallowed a lump in her throat, anxiously aware of the eyes on her as Coran slowly began to realise what he said might not have been the best way to put things. This was probably when the humans first realised the close ties she had with the old, dead Paladins they were replacing.

 

“Alright, I’ll try my best to train them,” she managed to assure, starting out shaky but finishing the statement as a firm promise she intended to keep. She offered a small smile to assure him all was well. Her eyes moved from the slightly remorseful face of her fellow Altean to the new black Paladin.

“Thank you, Y/n. We really appreciate all the help we can get for this,” he thanked her, as the others chimed in their own thank-yous, all rather eager to somewhat comfort the quieter alien. She tried not to gape as she quickly accepted their gratitude, trying to ignore the uncomfortable heat at the back of her neck and the tips of her pointed ears.

 

Would she really be suitable for training these humans who have been forced to be the defenders of the universe? Y/n really didn’t like the idea that these events were at the mercy of fate and how questions like these were absolutely pointless. But, seeing these humans interact, how they bonded so well with their lions and how they overall didn’t seem that bad, made the girl believe that there was some hope still.

 

 

Once they were back at the control room, the scan of Sendak’s ship was displayed.

“You’ll need to retrieve the Red Lion from Sendak’s ship,” Allura began to formulate a plan, although she was unable to pinpoint the Lion’s whereabouts.

“That’s a pretty big ship. How are we going to know where the Red Lion is?” Keith let his doubts known but were soon put at ease by the his fellow Paladins reassuring him that he’d be able to ‘feel’ its presence. The soldier fondly recalled similar tales of something like a gut-feeling being felt as the connection, or bond, between Paladin and Lion was formed. It was some powerful connection, to think that it was discovered by complete chance- it boggles the mind.

 

“Keith, remember, the Red Lion is extremely temperamental. You’ll have to earn its respect,” Allura warned since she knew all there was to know of the Red Lion, especially since it’s original pilot was her father. Shiro placed a hand on Keith’s shoulder as he initiated the ‘plan of attack’. Hopefully all would go well, she prayed as the team was split and everyone had their role to play.

 

 

Y/n now was back to her slightly-less-broken ship, all alone, after wishing the Paladins good luck. Coran stayed with the princess in order to get the particle barrier back online. Now all she had to do was play her role in this mess and fix her ship as much as she could with all the supplies in the castle. Considering it has been ten-thousand years after a brutal war, there wasn’t much for her to work with.

 

All the equipment in the crates could be used to make her baby fly again, but it wont be as smooth or as comfortable until they run into some Swap Moon. She briefly wondered if any were still around as she got to work. A lot must’ve changed in the universe, hopefully not all of it was due to the tyranny of the Galra.

 

Over the next while, Y/n managed to mend most of the wreckage. The hull was practically as good as new, mimicking the sleek elegance of the castle. The soldier had taken off most of her armor, to make the process of fixing things more comfortable, leaving the black under-suit. The armor remaining was around her thighs in case she needed her Bayard for anything and around her forearms since it contained the useful projections of what she had to do. One can never be too careful.

The Altean sighed a little as exhaustion seeped into her bones, making her whole form slump over the newly fixed engine. It felt odd for her to feel so drained after the lengthy slumber she had just experienced. 

Y/n rubbed her weary eyes, her staring at the trademark blue light for so long made them sting. This was the main reason how she could tell when she had to stop for a break, that she had been too immersed in work for too long. The (hair color)ette otherwise didn’t even realize how much time had gone past with her managing to fix up most of it. She hardly even noticed the occasional shudder and loud thud that came from Galra fire upon the ship and when Shiro came to claim the Black Lion with the aid of the others once all Lions were found.

The Altean winced and stretched her stiff back, taking a moment to be thankful that she wasn’t frozen in an awkward position. That would’ve been one painful wake-up. While she was contracting and relaxing her aching muscles, she noticed that the paladins were back, mainly intact. She tried to not seem too surprised as they exited their Lions with the unmistakable aura of accomplishment, of victory. 

Y/n failed however to not think about the familiar faces she’ll never see again that came to mind as the Paladins approached her. But their positive atosphere that they brought with them did begin to rub off on her. She could only imagine what forming such a powerful entity like Voltron for the first time would feel like. Hopefully it would be enough to distract them from how drained she probably looked like.

 

“Ah, you have returned sooner than expected,” she greeted with a hopefully welcoming smile and a more relaxed posture. The soldier purposely forced herself not to add ‘Paladins’ to the end of the welcome, not quite ready to accept them as such. Maybe someday they’ll change her mindset.

“Y/n, y/n you’ll never guess what happened-“  
“I’m a leg!”  
“-we formed Voltron!” said Altean found her smile genuinely widen with surprising ease at Lance’s eager opening interrupted by the now giddy Yellow Paladin. 

“You’ve fixed your ship!” Pidge observed out loud as the others were jittery with post-battle adrenaline, spouting all that came to mind as they recalled their achievement. Y/n rubbed the back of her neck and glanced back at the Explorer while the Green Paladin’s admiration for the Altean and it’s beautiful technology.  
“Eh, more or less. It’ll be airborne after I make a few more adjustments, but I’ll need to stop by a Swap Moon got remaining components,” she admitted humbly, forgetting that the humans had no idea what the location even was.

 

“Good work, Paladins!” Allura gushed as she rushed to the group, followed by an equally delighted Coran. The soldier flushed a bit at the almost blinding look of pride he had due to her being sociable with the humans. We’re there tears in his eyes?

The Paladins resumed their brief celebrations, taking off their helmets so they could be comfortable and have a generally good time to reminisce. Y/n’s interest was caught when Shiro comforted an upset Pidge. She managed to hear something about a brother and father. How curious... Guilt began to gnaw at her insides as she thought of the families they left behind.

Her attention was once again grabbed when the princess reminded the rejoicing humans that their journey is only just beginning, not failing to mention Zarkon’s greed for the Lions’ power.

“It’s a good thing you Paladins know what you’re doing,” The male Altean assured with maybe too much confidence in the humans, “because you’re going to have to form Voltron again and again.”

 

Y/n grimaced at how the whole demeanors of the Paladins took a turn for the worse as they fully realized what he said. The odd pit in her stomach grew as it dawned on her how unprepared they were mentally to be given such a burdening task. She wasn’t entirely assured by how physically prepared they were. The structure of the team itself was fragile, unstable with inexperience due to circumstance. 

“We barely survived forming Voltron this one time,” Lance’s form of protest was more proof that her doubts had truth.  
“And you only had to fight one ship! Wait until you have to fight a whole fleet of them!” Coran added with the usual unhelpful enthusiasm and the best intentions intended. Bless. 

“It’s not going to be easy being the defenders of the universe, but you won’t have to do it alone!” He finished with a tug to his ‘stache. Y/n was confident in that fact, and that seemed to lighten up the spirits on the others. 

“Defenders of the universe, huh? That’s got a nice ring to it,” their leader commented as the humans all turned dramatically to look up at their lions. 

 

The ginger clapped to get their attention with his usual flourish.  
"Now, I’m sure you’re all tired from everything that has happened today so Y/n will escort you to your rooms!" The said Altean winced as all she wanted to do now was sleep for another ten-thousand years or so, not be a maid to some humans. But she knew that Coran was trying to help her bond with them, so her bed would have to wait.

“Alright, where are their rooms?” she questioned half heartedly before picking up the pieces of her armor that she had taken off. 

“They’ll be in the ones closest to ours,” he assured fixing his collar. 

 

What.

 

Y/n nearly dropped the pieces, standing straight up in alarm.  
“Y-you don’t mean…their rooms?” She had to make sure she understood correctly. There was no way Coran would’ve gotten rid of their belongings already, not so soon. Too fast, they were moving too fast, leaving her behind.

“Yes, we cleared out their rooms to make room for the new paladins,” the princess’ explanation made unforgiving realization dawn on the soldier. The feeling was as cold and vile as ice cubes filling her lungs, leaving her breathless and shivering, a dull ache that was deep-rooted.

“Don’t worry, it’s all in the right wing containment unit!” the ginger chirped, doing nothing to benefit her spirits. Allura pursed her lips and placed a hand on her shoulder, hating that her words caused her friends mood to dampen so. 

Once Y/n remembered they had an audience of confused humans, she swallowed the thick lump in her throat and gave the Paladins a shaky smile.  
“Foll- follow me,” her skin boiled in shame when her voice broke pathetically while trying to be professional. Without wait for a response, she began to walk in the direction of the rooms, her grip like a vice on her armor.

 

There were plenty of free rooms, it was a castle for quiznack sake! So why on Altea did they have to take those ones? The only ones that belong to ghosts? The Altean bit her lip raw in the hopes of dimming the frustration that just kept growing. She refused to give the humans the satisfaction of seeing her vulnerable any more, never mind cry in front of them. Nope, never going to happen. Even if she wanted to say something to them to somehow explain the turmoil in her head, the tension had expanded in her throat like cotton, and she had no intention of stuttering like a fool.

The air was as thick as it could get as the Paladins followed Y/n, the only sound being their footsteps. Their minds were as occupied as hers if not even more so.

 

The smallest of the humans was thinking about what questions she’d ask the Galra prisoners in the hopes of getting some helpful info about her lost family members. Now that she was in space, she was closer than ever to actually finding them, filling Pidge with a sense of excitement coupled with anxiety. Those two were rarely found without the other, like how herself and Matt used to be…

 

The Blue Paladin was a tad concerned about the situation between the Alteans. Well, more confused than concerned, it wasn’t his fault they were so secretive. But he didn’t blame them entirely, they were pretty much strangers, after all. Hopefully that would change. He tried his best to focus on that instead of thinking about the ever shrinking chance that they’d go home… 

 

Hunk still felt a bit queasy from the near death experience. His legs were jello, his big heart only starting to calm down. The princess had said about how the Yellow Paladin put others before themselves and whatnot. He doubted internally if he fit that role. The odd tension with the Alteans wasn’t helping. He didn’t quite feel hostility coming from the alien in front of them, but he didn’t quite feel warm friendliness either… 

 

The ‘lone wolf’ wasn’t as as conflicted with his emotions for once. He was probably the only one who wasn’t thinking of Earth. What he was thinking about was how lost he felt when Shiro disappeared, how he could try and understand for once what a troubled stranger was feeling. Keith knew all too well he wasn’t good with people in general, maybe with these Alteans it will be different…

 

The newly appointed leader had a storm for a brain. It frustrated him beyond belief that he couldn’t remember anything other than snapshots of his time being captured by the Galra. Whenever he tried to recover anything useful, he felt a piercing migraine start to form behind his eyes. He knew the team could work together as a unit like the old Paladins must have, but it’ll be a long time before that happens…

 

The group halted when the Altean guide stopped in the middle of a T shaped corridor and turned to face them, wearing the best pokerface she could muster in the mindset she was in.

"These are your rooms, you can decide amongst yourselves who goes where," she presented half-heartedly while motioning to the six rooms along the longer hallway, where they just came from. Y/n proceeded almost robotically to point at the three rooms in the perpendicular part of the T. "My room's on the right and that's Coran's room Allura's in the middle," she hesitated before continuing, "Knock on my door if you need anything."

 

By now she couldn't care less that she wasn't being the greatest host to the humans. Y/n was tired and she was almost positive the 'Paladins' were too tired to notice too. She knew she would've been, if she was in their place. 

 

The soldier turned around and headed for her room, allowing herself the luxury of openly scowling at the thought that popped in her head. If she was in their place, she would at least pay her respects to the lost soul she replaced. Y/n breathed in deeply through her nose, focusing on feeling her now functioning lungs fill before she exhaled all the air out. This eased her mind enough to wish them a good night before going inside her chambers, the door sealing shut behind her. She didn't notice yet how the new Paladins chose the exact same rooms where their predecessors were. By chance perhaps.

 

The weary soldier took off the remainder of her armor as she noticed how her room was exactly how she left it. Her bed was unmade, data logs were well organised in their racks for viewing, different souvenirs from various different planets could be found anywhere and everywhere, pictures were framed on her walls. 

The dam of pent up emotions grew weaker at each picture her eyes gazed upon. Y/n couldn't fathom how wide she was able to smile in these group photos, how she felt that she'd never smile like that again. Before she knew it, her cheeks grew damp and stained from the fat tears that overflowed. Soon violent but silent sobs wracked her frame as the broken-hearted female managed to reach her bed, where she could collapse into a trembling heap.

That night, Y/n cried for the people gone from her life until she fell ito a dreamless slumber...


	6. Can you tell me what was ever really special about me all this time?

Y/n looked on with pity at the (mostly) disgruntled and disorientated Paladins as they responded to the false alarm. She herself still felt the tempting, almost magnetic pull of her bed after her few hours of broken sleep. 

 

After thinking hard about her overall behaviour towards the humans, she felt a bit guilty. So, to show good will in the spirit of Hump Day, she held a tray of cups full of the classic Altean cure for drowsy mornings; an inky liquid called Sotanc. She had her fill already and was glad she assumed correctly that the new comers would be tired. 

Her sympathies went out to them as Allura was less than pleased at the result of her experiment. With a tired sigh, Y/n made her way to them while Coran hadn’t noticed their arrival yet. He was still caught up in his acting of the princess’s assassination. It was the only time where the soldier was able to muster up the courage in the first place, so she found herself awkwardly scooting their way. 

 

“Here uh, it doesn’t taste the greatest but it should help to wake you up a bit,” the Altean offered as they all took a cup, either out of politeness or curiosity to taste more alien cuisine.

 

“I guess this isn’t an actual attack,” the human leader stated, trying to tread sensitively since the princess did not look happy as he looked with hidden weariness at the black liquid.

Y/n cringed sympathetically as The Yellow Paladin took a hesitant sip before pulling a face that screamed ‘I regret everything’. Pidge’s features wrinkled up like a raisin when she took her first sip before she had another go, deciding it wasn’t so bad. The Texan (warrior) had a lot more trouble to swallow his first sip than the others. The liquid seemed to tingle and fizz as it went down their throats, leaving them feeling more awake. 

 

“And it’s a good thing it wasn’t because it took you…Coran?” Allura sassed, getting progressively more annoyed, regardless of what the human leader said. Y/n meanwhile tried not to gape as Shiro drank the whole thing in one go.

“Seventy-five degrees!” the ginger replied with the utmost confidence. That doesn’t sound quite right. “Oh, sorry. No, this is a meat thermometer.” 

“However long it was, it was too long,” she cut in, stepping forward. “You must always be ready to do battle with Zarkon. Look at you! Only Shiro is uniform. Keith, Pidge, Hunk where are your bayards? And where is Lance?” Her last question was answered when the last Paladin entered leisurely with a sort of glow around him. 

 

Y/n’s eyes widened and she nearly dropped the tray with the remaining cup in surprise once she noticed his attire. He wore the nightwear that Blaytz once wore, she noticed as he sauntered in. Altean garbs were well known to be able to stretch or shrink to fit the wearer, so the h/cette was almost certain those belonged to the old Paladin. Seeing someone who was practically a stranger wearing them just felt wrong. Her blood went cold when her eyes shifted to the Blue Lion slippers Gyrgan had made for each of his pilot friends, each of her friends. They didn’t belong to him. 

 

Hunk, feeling more awake, took Lance’s drink to hang it to him, giving Y/n the chance to snap out of her trance before someone noticed her glaring. Just breath.

 

“We were awake for hours getting the Castle back in order,” the princess resumed her scolding without delay. She moved closer to the main group with Coran following behind. “We had to run a test on the alarms, and we decided to test you as well. Guess which one failed.” Y/n almost felt bad for the late human, but the wound from the slippers was still fresh. The fact that he didn’t seem very bothered by Allura’s words made her that more agitated. 

“Hey, you got to sleep for ten thousand years, man. Monday night, I was on Earth. Now, I’ve flown through space, fought some evil alien called Zarkon, eaten goo in some weird castle,” the Samoan defended himself and his fellow humans. Despite his exaggeration, I mean, they haven’t really fought Zarkon, Y/n could empathise with him. “That’s a lot to process in, uh…I don’t know. What day is it today?”

“It’s the third quintant of the Spicolian movement!” Coran answered helpfully.  
“Hump day,” the soldier added, holding her tray tightly. 

“…it’s a lot to process.”

 

“You must understand the stakes of our mission,” Allura calmed down enough to explain firmly as a monitor appeared. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, Y/n unconsciously believed this explanation was aimed at her. “Over the last ten thousand years, the Castle picked up distress beacons from the following locations.” 

With a push of a button, the map of the universe from before was displayed around them. But this time most of the blue co-ordinates were an ominous red.  
“So, we have to assume that Zarkon has conquered almost all of the known universe.” The princess swiped her hand across the map, moving the red to make way for the blue. “Earth is here. An attack on your planet is inevitable.” 

Y/n looked uncertainly between her fellow Alteans and the humans. Does this count as blackmail to force them to fight? Whatever it was, it didn’t sit well with her, it didn’t feel right. This sort of job was for experienced leaders. Why couldn’t they just go to the advanced planets where Zarkon hasn’t reached and find other more capable Paladins to form Voltron?

 

“Our mission is to free all those planets. Coran and I are getting the Castle ready to leave Arus. During that time, Y/n will help you learn to form Voltron so we can begin fighting Zarkon,” she finished with no room for any sort of negotiating or other options. The universe didn’t seem to favour the smallest Altean.

“The princess is right. Let’s get to our Lions and start training,” Shiro began to address his team. Before Y/n could counter his plan since she believed in starting with basic teamwork training, the shortest out of all of them spoke up.

“Wait. But I want to talk to the prisoners we rescued from the Galra ship.”

“Negative, Number Five. I have you ranked by height, okay?” Coran butted in to interrupt her interruption. “The prisoners need to stay in the cryo-replenishers until tomorrow.”

“That’s right, now get to your lions,” the princess ordered, making Y/n sigh internally. Well, there goes her plan to finish fixing her ship.

 

 

As the trio moved their way across the castle for maintenance, they approached the resting Paladins in one of the recreational rooms. Y/n felt immense pity once again for the humans after witnessing Allura’s help. She was truly a force to be reckoned with, even when she had the best intentions. Wait, resting Paladins? They weren’t supposed to be here unless- 

 

“You did it! You formed Voltron!” she cheered but their less than happy faces said otherwise. Where was Shiro? 

“No. The shooting stopped and the particle barrier shut down, so we just flew in,” Keith bluntly responded. Y/n’s eyes widened and she rapidly shook her head behind the princess’s back, trying to prevent any accidents from happening. 

“What?” Too late, they were doomed.

“Oh, right. Sorry Princess, I had to turn off the Castle defences to test the fire suppressers,” a guilty looking Coran admitted. 

“What are you guys doing in here? We’re not taking a break,” the missing leader reappeared, not looking happy. Quiznack, Shiro and Allura were like the disappointed parents of the others. 

“Shiro’s right, you should start training with Y/n immediately,” said girl snapped out of her amusing train of thought, trying her best not to look like someone was pointing a gun at her. Luckily the other humans seemed as reluctant as she was.

“We’ve been training. When are we going back to Earth?” Hunk whined, slumping more into his seat. 

“I’m not going back until I find my family,” Pidge insisted, sitting forward. Did they really think they had a choice?

“Guys, there won’t be an Earth if we don’t find away to fight Zarkon,” the Black Paladin cut in before anyone else could protest. 

“How are we going to fight?” Nope, never mind, Lance was still able to protest. “We can’t even figure out how to form Voltron.”

“Well, I’m not surprised. You know, the original paladins hundreds of battles together, side-by-side. They were like a pack of yalmors linked at the ears,” the male Altean once again voiced Y/n’s thoughts exactly as he placed a hand on his chin.

“And that was even before they became Paladins,” she added albeit reluctantly, crossing her arms. She didn’t mean to throw any shade but it was the hard truth finally coming forward. Maybe now Allura will reconsider her decision. It worked to deflate the mood of the humans even more, making them reconsider their life choices.

“Wow. Yeah, that’s definitely not us,” the Blue Paladin already admitted defeat, sprawling his scrawny limbs across the couch in a way that couldn’t possibly be comfortable. 

“During the last attack, your survival instincts forced you to work as a team,” Coran pressed, not giving up on the humans. “But that’ll only get you so far. You’ll have to become a real team to have any chance of forming Voltron and then beating Zarkon next time.”

His words seemed to shift the Paladins out of their slump. 

 

Coran gave Y/n’s shoulder an encouraging pat to try ease her mind before himself and the princess could carry on with their ship checking. 

“That’s why Y/n will help you with different team-building exercises in the training deck. You’ll be working as one unit in no time!” He assured with all the confidence the girl just couldn’t muster. 

“There’s a training deck?” Hunk asked sceptically, adding to the weight on the Altean girl’s shoulders. Her eyes widened when she was quickly abandoned to train the humans.

Y/n turned slowly back them after hopelessly watching the Alteans leave her and smiled nervously as she had to take the lead now.   
“This way…I guess.”

 

 

This is a bad idea this is a bad idea this is a TERRIBLE idea, why did she agree to do this? Thoughts like this kept going through her head as she looked down at the Paladins from the training deck’s control room. She always preferred to be down with the trainees since the controls were easier for a small section of the deck but the observation room was important to use the whole room to its advantage.

“So many monitors…” she mumbled in intimidated awe while looking at the various screens showing the Paladins vitals. Thankfully everything was colour-coded so she wasn’t going to get mixed up. Y/n cleared her throat awkwardly once she noticed the humans looking up at her.

 

“A-ah, form a circle in the centre of the room for this first exercise,” she announced into the headpiece. Luckily there was already a circle design in the floor so all they had to do was face away from each other. “The Paladin code demands you put your team members’ safety before your own,” the Altean continued as if it were common knowledge. Well, it should be for any team, right? “These drones should help you accomplish that.”

 

With that statement as their only warning, Y/n released several harmless-looking drones to surround the team at a push of a button. 

“Protect your team mates as they will protect you. If all goes well you will all leave unscathed,” she assured ominously as they managed to activate their shields on their own. “Good luck.”

 

That was the only warning she gave before the Altean let all hell break loose. To be fair, the first mode was pretty easy. She was unpleasantly surprised when the Yellow Paladin, the one who had the trait of putting others before themselves, ducked to avoid a laser instead of using his shield, resulting in Pidge’s demise. And then there were four. 

 “Use your shield to your advantage, Hunk. It can withstand a lot more than you might think,” she took a shot at advising the Paladin to do better. She grimaced as she was forced to continue watching the spectacle as the said Paladin quickly joined his comrade in falling through a hole. “Stay together,” Y/n edged on, invested now to see how they’ll manage. 

 

The remaining three wisely got closer together to form a tighter circle and were doing pretty well for themselves. 

“Increasing the difficulty level. You’re doing very well, you three, keep it up,” she spoke too soon as Lance quickly brought up some sort of argument about who was protecting who better in response to the ego boosting. Was he serious? Just when she was starting to enjoy his company. 

“Focus more on actually protecting each other, rather than- never mind,” her scolding came too late as once again a human neglected their shield, resulting in Keith being the next to fall. The Cuban followed almost immediately after. With no one left to watch his back, Shiro quickly was, to put it simply, disposed of. 

 

Y/n was surprised at how disappointed she felt. Did she really put so much faith in the slim chance that they’d succeed in their training? If she did, she wasn’t aware but she was certain that it wouldn’t happen again. Right? 

 

The Altean swiftly moved on through each exercise, all with the same overall results; failure to even resemble a functioning team. To be fair, as a bit of revenge for Lance picking a fight as they were close to partial success in the first exercise, for the second exercise that relied most on trust, she paired him up with Keith to face the invisible maze. It wasn’t a surprise that that didn’t end well. 

Shiro was the most capable out of all of them, no surprise there. He was the most experienced of them all, the most ‘Paladin-like’ out of all of the humans, having already formed a strong bond with his Lion.

He preformed perfectly in the blind nose dive. Similar to the first exercise, the Yellow Paladin failed the test first and the remaining two primary colours failed because of their stupid rivalry. Again, to play the devil’s advocate, it was an expert-level exercise that should only be practiced by experts but there unfortunately was no time for that. 

 

When it came however to the training of the mind, Y/n was surprised that the only one who failed happened to be the intellectual Pidge. Once again, her hope rose up from the ashes as she saw the humans focusing for the most part to form Voltron, only to be crushed once more. The Altean wondered if this mindset would ever change.


	7. I believe the world is burning to the ground...

Seeing as their moods were turning sour and therefore making the humans more unwilling to cooperate, the Altean decided to have mercy on them all and call for a well needed (less deserved) break. 

“It’s a lot nicer than the Sotanc,” Y/n promised as she handed out pouches of revitalising liquid for the resting humans. After all, they probably never went through intensive training like this. It must be hard on their primitive bodies, she mused to herself while she struggled to remember her first training session. All the Altean recalled were aching muscles and lectures from her mother. 

 

“What are you doing lying around? You’re supposed to be training!” Y/n jumped at the annoyed voice of the princess as she popped in.  
“They’ve been working hard and deserve to relax a little. Their break only started, Allura,” she wearily stepped up to the defence of the humans, unsure why the princess was getting so worked up about it. Quiznack, this training session was full of surprises for the young Altean. 

 

“You can’t push them too hard,” Coran agreed, to try ease the princess’s unusual temper. What happened? 

“What do you mean, ‘can’t push them too hard’? Get up, you lazy lumps! It’s time to face the gladiator!” The smallest alien paled at her announcement and stepped in front of the humans, honestly kind of scared for them. Shiro and Keith probably have a chance but it’s still pretty unfair for them to get right into a fight without learning the basics of working as a team.

“W-wait a minute, Allura, I really don’t-“  
“I won’t have my orders questioned, Y/n. Get on with the training."

With that sorted, her royal highness dismissed her. Coran patted the trainer on the shoulder and discreetly winked to try let her know of the princess’s act of being a ‘common enemy’ for the humans. It did nothing to unwind the tightening coil of tension in her chest.

 

The soldier could practically feel the sympathy, the horrid pity, coming from the humans as she took a moment to compose herself with her back still turned to them.

 

“Get back into defensive positions in the training deck,” her order was barely heard by the uncertain group who obeyed with differing reluctance. 

 

Once the door closed behind them, the Altean let out a shakey sigh as she tried to keep calm. Her hands pressed against her cheeks with a soft ‘pap’ in the hopes of soothing the buzzing mind under the surface.  
“Just a little longer,” Y/n assured herself under her breath before making her way to the observation room. 

 

Not to anyone’s surprise, the humans failed to defeat the gladiator. The fight only lasted a few ticks so even if Y/n found the will to guide them, she couldn’t have. The princess won’t be too pleased.

And she was right.

 

She chewed on the inside of her cheek in thought as she diactivated the training deck before heading to the others slowly. The dead weight of dread made her feet drag in the hopes of delaying the inevitable. 

 

Her attention was drawn to an open door that she hadn’t noticed before. If her memory still served her correctly, it was one of the storage rooms she and Allura would hide in when the princess wanted a break from being royalty. A tired smile tugged on the corners of her mouth as light giggles and hushed whispers echoed in her memories.

 

The princess and Coran could deal with the humans, she thought after a minute of internal debate. Her footsteps were silent as she entered the cluttered yet neat room. Y/n’s heart leapt to her throat as the belongings of her friends, her family, filled almost every nook and cranny. 

 

A short breath of incredulous laughter burst out of her trembling lips as she saw the crude plush Gyrgan made of and for Blaytz rested on a pile of colourful boxes. She was surprised the Blue Paladin ended up keeping the experiment as the Yellow Paladin began practicing his new favourite hobby. Then again, no one could ever have the heart to refuse any of his generous gifts. She could still remember trying not to laugh as the ‘sharpshooter’ had to accept it in front of his Galra suitor.

 

Her eyes stung as she pressed onwards, afraid to touch anything in the fear of it disappearing to be with their owner. Before Y/n knew it, her cheeks grew damp as she saw the intricate pieces of artwork created with complex technology by Trigel’s skilful hands. She recalled how long it took for the Green Paladin to teach her how to make a small pendent. The others soon joined in on the fun as a sort of ‘bonding experience’ that tested their patience better than anything else could have.

She took a moment to notice how there wasn’t any of the old Black Paladin’s belongings. It wouldn’t be a shock to her if Allura had thrown them out into the void of space and shot them with the castle.

 

She was, however, taken aback to find the King’s belongings here. Y/n’s brows furrowed in concern for her friend as she found the beautiful portrait of the royal family. Little baby Allura was truly a precious sight to behold. Her gummy grin in the arms of her loving parents almost taking away the harsh blow that came with the deceased couple. 

 

They didn’t deserve this end, none of them did.

 

 

Time seemed non existent as the Altean found herself almost overwhelmed by the untold stories left behind with each object.  
She didn’t break down like she thought she would’ve, but each memory reminded her of the conversation she ought to have with the remaining Alteans. It gave her the motivation she knew she would need if she was ever going to go through with it.

 

The soldier nearly jumped out of her skin when the ginger Altean made an enthusiastic entrance. 

 

“Y/n! There you are!” he announced his presence before placing a hand on her shoulder. He did his best not to let his eyes linger on any sort of nick-nack as he guided his fellow Altean out the door. “The Paladins manager to finally form Voltron! Can you believe it? I must admit I had my doubts about the Princess’s methods but it all worked out in the end!”

 

The two swiftly made their way to the control room as Coran joyfully recounted the epic battle between the two races that resulted in him still having food goo in his hair. Allura's eyes brightened when the two reached her. The apologetic princess approached her friend carefully. 

 

“I am sorry for being a bit harsh, Y/n. It all has to do with a plan for the Paladins to bond,” she assured in the hopes of gaining her forgiveness. The said girl’s breath hitched as she noticed her opening window of opportunity. It was only her and her friends, no humans.

 

Y/n smiled a little with an understanding nod, fiddling nervously with her hands as she gave herself an internal pep talk.

 

“I understand completely. But, can I talk to you about the uh… Paladins?” she asked, her voice getting meeker by the word as her gaze flickered from one friend to another. Allura looked confused but nodded with a patient smile. Coran grew a bit more concerned.  
“Of course, what about them?” 

 

Well, it’s now or never. 

 

“It’s just…I don’t think-“ Y/n let out a frustrated breath through her nose before finally gathering her thoughts properly. “I think we should return the humans to their home planet and find other Paladins.” Their shocked faces discouraged the soldier. Did they not feel how wrong this whole thing was?

 

“What?” Y/n gulped and tensed more, feeling her confidence wear-off.

 

“I just…believe that it isn’t, it just doesn’t feel right that we’ve effectively taken these humans from their homes and forced them to- to take part in a war,” she chose her words carefully to try get her point across. 

 

“Y/n, the lions chose the humans to be their Paladins. Nothing can change that,” Allura countered, hoping that that will be all. The soldier bit her lip, proving that it would most certainly not be all. 

 

“I know that but, these- these humans don’t know what they’re getting themselves into. They’re not fit for the kind of war the Galra have started,” her voice grew a tad louder as she grew more exasperated, running a hand through her hair. “Quiznack, the only one who could possibly stand a chance is suffering from some sort of post traumatic stress after undergoing who knows what!”  
“Now, now, let’s not get too… agitated about all of this," Coran intervened with a nervous chuckle, being the peacekeeper he was, stepping in to try dispel the rising tension. 

 

“He is right, we have no time to argue about this. We need to move on, you must learn to accept the new paladins, Y/n.” The princess had to make tough decisions for the safety of everyone. It was the burden her father once carried, and now it was hers.

 

“Move on..?” Y/n murmured in disbelief, clenching her fists tightly. “Without even a ceremony of some sort? Anything at all to do something for them so it’s not like they gave their lives for nothing?!”

 

“Y/n-“  
“Do you want us to just forget they even existed too? Just move all their possessions to the side so they could be replaced easier?!”

 

“Y/n stop this-“  
By now the soldier’s cheeks grew red from anger as her breath grew short at the release of the frustration and grief that had built up inside her. Her brows furrowed as she snarled like a cornered animal. 

 

“Blaytz, Trigel, Gyrgan,” Y/n gripped her chest as knew it wouldn’t be long until fat tears would run down her cheeks. “My mother, Coran’s son, your father! It’s as if you have forgotten them! Like you don’t even-“

 

“That is enough, Y/n!” the Princess snapped sharply, making her friend’s heart stop. “The humans are the Paladins of Voltron and that’s. It. For the sake of the universe, we must move on.” 

 

With her head lowered, Y/n managed to nod in response to Allura’s order. She found herself struggling to breathe as she realised that the Alteans had an awkward audience that stood silently at the doorway. 

“O-of course, Princess. Whatever you say,” she managed to say hoarsely after swallowing a lump in her throat, her voice thick with raw emotion. “If you’ll excuse me…” Y/n did a short bow before managing to make her exit without looking at the humans, before she could humiliate herself further. 

 

Allura was silenced by the formality of the soldier as she watched her retreating figure, knowing she made a mistake. The male Altean was uncharacteristically silent with a face that could only be described as one of loss. 

Having heard most of what was going on, the group of humans felt unsure of what to do, who to side with. Just a few minutes ago they were proud of themselves for forming Voltron and working as a team. But now the conflict between their alien hosts was stirring up some not necessarily welcome emotions inside them.

 

 

A loud thud resonated through Y/n’s room as she fell to her knees, her balled fists creating two craters in the floor of her chambers. Her shadow mimicked her body’s trembling as broken cries filled the silence afterwards. The smiling faces of the people that the rest of the universe seemed to want to forget. 

 

Her form curled in on itself in the foetal position as some form of comfort. Fat tears gathered to pool in the small craters. Wet apologies were hiccuped between heaving breaths while she failed to notice the figure that approached. Y/n stiffened when she felt a hand on her lower back. She held her breath as she waited for the newcomer to make themselves known. There was no way that she’d lift her probably red and puffy face.

 

“…I miss them too,” Coran murmured, starting to rub circles. “It feels like we’ve failed them doesn’t it?” His voice was weak, drained of the trademark enthusiasm, the voice of a tired man who lost his child. 

"C-Coran-" she choked out, slowly turning to look up at him through the wall of tears that obscured her vision. If it wasn't so hazy, she would've seen his strength begin to crumble. 

 

"It may seem like we've given up on them, but that is far from the truth," he assured as his hand moved to her shoulder. "But by nurturing their legacy, by helping the next generation, we can still honour their memory in the small things."

 

Y/n pressed her lips together as a second flow of tears started to pour out of her eyes before the ginger took her into his arms. He had always been a good shoulder to cry on in the past when little Y/n cut herself during training or when she and the princess got into an argument about something petty. She was glad to know that this would never change as she wept for the sake of drying out completely, to get rid of the grief in order to move on. 

Once she was reduced to sniffling and her breathing stabilised, Y/n raised her head to thank her dear friend when she saw an apologetic Princess for the second time that day. Her reddened, puffy eyes widened as she pulled back from the embrace, feeling guilty for lashing out the way she did. 

 

"Allura, I-" her apology was cut off when the said girl raised her hand to silence her. Coran wiped his face quickly before standing up and helping the soldier to her feet. 

"Y/n," her voice was softer than anticipated, yet it still managed to make the girl in question stiffen. "I am so so sorry I treated you, my dearest friend, in such a way." Y/n's eyes widened as she looked at the distressed royalty, making the guilty weight double. 

 

"No, no Allura you were right. The universe needs Voltron now more than ever, I shouldn't have gotten angry at you about it," she countered while stepping forward, failing to ignore how the princess glanced behind her at the group photo. 

 

A sad smile moved her cheeks a bit as her eyes grew glossy. 

"Remember that time when food goo went up my nose when you told me about when Blaytz had to dress up as a Dolorian handmaiden after losing a bet to my father?" she asked, the rare, mischievous twinkle in her eyes returning once again.

Y/n's eyes widened as she snorted at the fond memory. 

"Of course, I think I may have the pictures around here somewhere," she contemplated before turning to look through the labels of different logs. Coran bounced back to a moderate amound of cheeriness at the topic of silly memories.

"Oh! Or that time you scared Trigel by pretending to have the so called 'pucker-pox' to get out of training?"

"Oh really? Y/n failed to tell me that epic tale," Allura teased with a raised brow as she made herself comfortable on her bed. The soldier flushed and rolled her eyes good-naturedly. 

"Oh shush, she was going to make me clean her lion as training because- oh! I found it! Along with many others," she mused while holding them up. The male followed the princess in etting comfortable as they got prepared for a night of reliving memories.

 

Some more tears were shed, some laughs included as Y/n reflected on the silly idea she had that the people he cared about would be forgotten. As long as she lived to tell their tales, to show off their shenanigans, as long as the Lions stood for peace and freedom, they would live on.


	8. Oh well, I guess we’re gonna find out...

The next morning, the Paladins were very glad to find that their wake-up call wasn’t a screaming alarm.

 

In fact, Shiro had to go around and personally wake everyone up once he figured everyone had in and around eight hours of sleep. 

The fragile, new team grew more unstable at the exposed conflict between their hosts. They didn’t catch onto the beginning of the smaller Altean’s speech but the end part they did witness sparked their interest, as well as some concern. Y/n’s occasional borderline hostility towards the humans was now more understandable as they sympathised with her.

 

Once they were all geared up and ready to start the day, their trek to the control room was interrupted by the ginger alien. The chipper man nearly ran them over in his excitement to get to his destination. His entire form seemed to buzz with a sort of euphoria previously unknown to the humans.

 

"Good...morning, Coran. Everything alright?” Shiro greeted cautiously. The ginger snapped out of whatever train of thought he was lost in and beamed at the Paladins.

”Oh! Look at you lot, all suited up and ready for another days training already!” he praised with his hands on his hips. “The Princess and Y/n are in the control room waiting for you! I’ll be preparing your breakfast for after the training!"

Coran patted the human leader’s shoulder before swiftly continuing on his merry way with a skip in his step, whistling a gentle tune.

“Well someone definitely woke on the right side of the bed,” Lance mused with a raised brow as he clasped his hands behind his head leisurely.

“I don’t know if his enthusiasm about training is a good or bad thing,” Hunk admitted wearily as the group resumed their walk, wondering what awaited them.

 

They definitely didn’t expect to see the princess and the soldier giggling like school girls. Y/n was in the process of tying up Allura’s hair in an intricate sort of knot when the humans stepped in.

"Oh! Hello Paladins- ow!” The princess yelped when her sudden attempt to sit up caused her hair to be pulled unintentionally.

“Ah, sorry ‘Rura,” Y/n held the soft, snowy locks a bit looser but didn’t quite want to let go and let all her previous work go to waste. With a little cooperation and coordination, the two girls stood up together to face the humans. The soldier’s tongue peaked out between her lips in concentration as she swiftly finished the ‘do.

The sight was…pure to say the least.

 

“I hope you’re all ready for some more training,” ‘Rura’ encouraged while clasping her hands together, glancing back at her friend. She felt her cheeks redden from the shame that remained from yesterday’s speech. “This time it’ll focus more on your individual combat skills.”

“So none of the shooting or the robots and such?” the Yellow Paladin fretted hopefully, though the improved atmosphere with the aliens was easing his nerves considerably. Allura shook her head with the grace to look sheepish. 

“No, there will be none of that. Unless Y/n deems it necessary,” the formality of her tone made the soldier bite her cheek to conceal her amused grin. “I’ll leave you all to it.”

"I suppose not everyone can be as creative as you, ‘Rura," she teased quietly, recalling the old phrase of 'you can acomplish anything if a pretty woman is really mean to them' that was previously used in the human training. The princess raised a brow before making her leave. 

"Of course, but even I can’t possibly compete with your creativity, Y/n,” Allura retorted in a way that made the said girl's eyes narrow, her words growing volume the closer she got to the door. The humans couldn't help but watch her leave. “After all, you’re the one with the elaborate knife collection created just so you can say 'knife to meet you' when you show it to people.”

 

The silence afterwards was deafening as the godawful pun dawned on the humans, resulting in mixed reactions. 

Pidge shook her head with her palm pressed against her forehead in disappointment, but there was no hiding the trembling of her shoulders. It wasn’t fair, the knife pun took her by surprise, and now began to corrupt her, damn it. The Cuban snorted with a raised brow, uncertain whether the fact that terrible jokes were around ten thousand years ago was relieving or distressing.

The Black paladin’s brow rose at the mention of an ‘elaborate knife collection’, his eyes knowingly drifting to Voltron’s right hand. Keith’s eyes widened and his already growing interest in the quite Altean peaked at the word ‘knife’. He forced himself not to take out his most prized possession right then and there to show her. Maybe she knew what the symbol on the knife meant.

An incredulous, delighted grin slowly spread across Hunks face. He quickly looked behind him to see the soldier’s reaction to the reveal of her secret. Y/n’s face, all the way up to her pointed ears, was cherry red. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water as she struggled to say anything. 

 

Feeling immensely satisfied with the result, Allura turned away from her flustered friend. With a final wave and a hope for good luck, the princess left. 

“W-Wait, Allura!” the remaining Altean finally found her voice to call out but it was too late, the damage was done and she was left alone with the humans. Seeing that all eyes turned to her, Y/n’s red complexion darkened further. “Quiznack...” she muttered as she was approached by the garrison trio.

 

”Do you really have one? I mean, do you really say that joke? Oh please tell me you do,” the Yellow Paladin gushed as the Altean rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly with a nod in response. She could’ve sworn her cheeks were emitting steam by now. 

The other female pushed her glasses further up her nose as a smirk grew on her face.

”I’m thankful that I’m not the only one with sharp wit around here.” With the green Paladin’s follow-up pun being too much too early in the morning, Lance groaned over dramatically and leaned all his weight on his stronger buddy’s shoulder. 

“W-Well, it’s time to begin today’s training!” the Altean girl announced quickly after clearing her throat awkwardly in the hopes that her brief snort-laugh wasn’t heard.

It absolutely was. 

 

 

“Here are your statistics,” Y/n announced, displaying the data gathered from the previous training sessions, showing their strength, agility and intelligence on a scale from one to twenty once they arrived at the training deck. To say that they were impressed was an understatement.

 

”Wow, you got all that information from a couple hours of training?” Shiro asked in awe, taking responsibility as leader to look at the stats of his team members. His soldier training definitely helped with his high numbers. The Altean nodded with a sense of pride at the technology of her people.

”The whole room measures your vitals and abilities each time you train.”

“Holy crow, whose are those? One of the old Paladins?” the Cuban surprised himself when his plan to compare his scores with Keith’s was put to the back of his mind when he saw the sixth triad of results. 

The agility was completely maxed out with the strength at 18/20. This person wasn’t quite an idiot either, with above average intelligence. The Altean scratched her cheek before she began to prepare the next step in their training. 

“Oh, that’s mine.”

“HUH?!”

 

Y/n nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden loud reactions of the humans. Her hair bristled as the only smaller being practically launched onto her, the grin pulling her cheeks made Pidge’s glasses move up. 

“No way! How much can you lift Y/n?!” 

“Oh! Can you pick up a- a whole ship?” Hunk’s enthusiasm and slight fear showed while he approached the smaller but stronger girl. Only by one point, sure, but still. The Blue Paladin was uncharacteristically silent, his hand did little to conceal the deepening colour of his face. 

“Small ships, sure. I suppose I could maybe lift them,” the soldier replied nonchalantly before summoning her bayard as a staff. Y/n had to admit, the awe of the humans in response to nearly everything Altean was a pleasant development. She wasn’t overly proud or egotistical but it was still appreciated none the less.

 

“Today you’ll focus more on your individual fighting skills and how to improve yourselves,” she began, moving swiftly on as the Paladins got used to summoning their weapons. The smallest human looked between her bayard and the one of the Altean with curiosity.

”How do you get yours to change?” Pidge wondered out loud, catching their trainer a bit off-guard.

“The bayard takes the form of whatever weapon it’s user is most suited to wield,” the Altean explained, leaning her weight on the weapon. “If you’ve only ever had experience fighting with, for example, a sword, that’s fine. If you’re comfortable with using various different weapons, that’s fine too.”

Seeing that the green Paladin was satisfied with that answer, Y/n pressed a button that summoned four gladiators, similar to the one from yesterday but smaller. 

“One of you at a time will fight against me while the others will be up against these gladiators,” she finished as a mixture of dread and excitement filled the humans. 

 

The training deck was split into five by transparent barriers so no one would be taken out by friendly fire. Shiro found himself getting ready to fight against the Altean first. He wasn’t sure if that made him lucky or unlucky.

 

“You have some experience fighting, correct?” Y/n wanted to clarify things as fighting began for the others. Her knees bent in a steady fighting stance as he did the same, fists clenched. Judging by how the girl didn’t put away her bayard, the leader had a feeling that she wouldn’t be going easy on him.

The Altean analysed his form as he nodded in response, getting ready for the fight. Shiro didn’t really need any further training, but he could brush up on his agility, Y/n gathered but kept in mind that he was a prisoner for a while, not even he was sure of what exactly happened to him. 

A small smirk tugged at one end of her mouth as her grip tightened on the staff. She never fought a human before, and the soldier was curious to see how long the most experienced Paladin would last. 

“You attack me first, Shiro. Whenever you’re ready.”

 

Admittedly, he wasn’t entirely onboard with fighting the smaller girl. He didn’t really trust himself after the brief flashback that happened during his first time fighting the gladiator. She’s an experienced, alien soldier, the Black Paladin reminded himself as he glanced to see how the others were holding up before he ran at the Altean, focusing on not underestimating her. 

 

 

“End training sequence!” Y/n called out to the robots, beaming down at exhausted leader as he caught his breath on the cold floor. He put up a great fight against her with his interesting Earth techniques. “You did very well, Shiro! Your agility statistics are improving steadily.”

The said human couldn’t respond to the cheerful words of encouragement. He was too busy trying to remember the last time he felt this exhausted. With burning lungs, aching muscles and his heartbeat coming from his brain, he slowly got to his feet with the Altean’s helping hand. Shiro wheezed out a thanks as he was dismissed, now free to go relax and eat breakfast. It was well needed. He was too old for this.

 

Y/n discreetly wiped away the human’s sweat on her thigh as she watched him leave. Maybe she shouldn’t have decided to stop the training when the Black Paladin stopped looking pretty. Even now that he was at the brink of collapsing, she was sad to see him go but glad to watch him leave. She did feel a tad guilty for not going easy on him. Oh well, better luck next time.

Once she realised she had the gobsmacked attention of the remaining humans, Y/n cleared her throat in an effort to stop the heat rising in her cheeks. One of the gladiators was diactivated as she called forth her next (victim) training partner.

“Keith, your up next.”

 

The said human approached her wordlessly as the room now was divided into quarters. He never saw his brother figure that wiped out before and, for once in his life, he wanted to talk instead of fight. All he wanted was to get his dagger and show her as he felt closer than ever to finding answers about his past, about who he was. 

 

“So, you said that Shiro was the one who taught you how to fight?” Y/n half teased while acknowledging the similarities in the Texan’s stance to the previous fighter. Keith’s was more tense around the shoulders and arms but his legs were spread wider, bringing his entire posture lower to the ground.

”I won’t shank myself, if that’s what you’re suggesting,” he retorted quickly, making the Altean’s eyes widened before they narrowed, her cheeks gaining their now familiar red colour. Keith only slightly regretted that decision as he took the initiative to strike first.

 

 

Okay, never mind, he regretted it a lot. The short onslaught from the even shorter female was unlike any training he did before with Shiro. He understood his desire to just lay down on the floor for a while and just think about his place in the universe. The extra effort he put in to try out manoeuvre her wasn’t worth it in the end. 

 

Y/n had to admit, he wasn’t half bad. The Red Paladin’s agility was like the lion he piloted and it almost bested her a couple of times, almost. He as he genuinely had her on her toes at times.

“End training sequence!” She called out before addressing the recovering human. “Not bad, Keith. I think you nearly hit me that one time,” she mused while holding out a hand before she could remind herself of the gross sweat. “You have great reflexes and almost natural instinct when it comes to dodging. You just need to work on being more patient when it comes to looking for an opening to strike.”

 

The male nodded slowly in response, being too tired to remember his pride as he grasped the outstretched hand. Keith even forgot about his plan to talk to her as he dragged his feet to follow Shiro in the hopes of getting some R&R. 

 

Y/n watched after him to make sure he didn’t collapse on the way while biting her cheek so Shen wouldn’t pout. Why do humans still look so pretty even when they’re half dead with exhaustion? 

She turned to the remaining three and chose her third prey of the day. 

“Hunk! You’re next up,” she stated, as the said boy trembled. The gladiator from yesterday now seemed a lot more appealing as an opponent. 

 

The Yellow Paladin approached meakly as he looked like he was going to soil himself. The deck now was split according to the number of pairs fighting. Y/n immediately felt guilty of the worst of crimes as the male looked at her like that. She willed her bayard to vanish in an act of truce with her hands raised. 

“I take it that you’ve never trained in combat before?” she offered in response to the confused look on his face. He immediately looked relieved that he wasn’t about to be pummelled. 

“Oh no, nope, never done anything like this before in my life. Before all this stuff happened, I was just an engineer for a cargo shuttle!” Y/n’s eyes widened as the dam was broken for the larger male’s worries. Her eyebrows furrowed a bit as he admitted his previous training. 

“What would’ve happen if you were attacked then?” she wondered, concerned and confused at how the human survived for this long. 

“There was never a threat that you’d be attacked on earth!” Hunk exclaimed, grabbing onto her shoulders before a different thought came up in his mind. “Well, maybe if there was a mean person who wanted money or something then I guess it would be handy to know how to fight.”

 

The Altean responded with a gentle smile while taking his much larger hands off her shoulders. 

“That’s why I’m here to teach you how to fight, Hunk,” she encouraged in the hopes of preventing him from fearing her so much. “And we’ll start at the very beginning. Show me your fighting stance.”

 

 

By the end of Hunk’s private session, he felt stronger than ever, more sure of himself. He didn’t remember feeling this comfortable with what he’s doing outside the kitchen or an engine room. Despite feeling drained and hungry, the strain in his muscles felt like proof of his accomplishments. 

Y/n beamed proudly at her student’s improved form. 

“Excellent work Hunk! You’ve accomplished much in the little time we trained. You just need to use your strength more to your advantage and be mindful of your centre of balance.”

 

The Samoan grew bashful at each comment while rubbing the back of his neck. He wondered briefly how he could’ve ever been afraid of the nice alien. 

“Aw, heh, will do Y/n! Am I uh...free to get breakfast now?” 

“You may leave for breakfast,” the teacher permitted with a little giggle and a nod. The sun-like grin in response made her briefly forget how to breathe as the male rushed off in order to silence his growling stomach. 

 

 

The Blue Paladin was tempted to actually raise his hand like a kid wanting the teachers attention when his name was called. After three sessions with the relatively easy gladiator, he was feeling tired before the main event. Now was his chance.

 

He strode up to her with a confidence that didn’t quite reach his eyes. Pidge snickered quietly to herself before her attention was recaptured by the droid. 

Y/n raised a brow a bit but shook her head, summoning her bayard again. 

“Do you want to take a break before we start?” she asked, taking into consideration that he spent a lot longer fighting the gladiators than anyone, but Pidge of course.

Lance scoffed in response, looking smug despite his flushed and sweaty skin. 

“Break? Psh, I haven’t even started,” he almost purred which made the girl’s brow raise further. 

 

“Right...well, you’ve proven to be quite the sharpshooter, but what about your experience at hand-to-hand combat?” The Blue Paladin preened at the nickname she just gave him, ignoring everything after that. His complexion flushed for a different reason now.

”What was that you just called me?” Y/n blinked and looked borderline concerned for the boy. Maybe he’s dehydrated.

“Uh, sharpshooter? Most of the shots you’ve fired have hit their target. Sharp, meaning accurate and shooter meaning-“ her in depth explanation of the name was cut off when she noticed the distant look on his face with the odd gleam in his eyes. Was he about to cry?! “Are you alright, Lance?”

 

The Blue Paladin cleared his throat and nodded, wearing a more relaxed, less flirty smile before it turned into a challenging smirk. 

“I’m okay, but you won’t be by the time I’m done!” he announced, aiming his gun as Y/n mirrored his look once she approved of his sturdy posture.

“We’ll see about that,” she countered quickly as she got into a fighting stance, curious to see how well he’d do when the battle was more close-range. “Ready when you are, sharpshooter.”

 

 

It was after the fifth time Lance was disarmed and thrown to the ground, the Altean stopped the training sequence. She was pleasantly surprised at how each of the times he was knocked down, he got back up. 

“Wh-what? Why did you stop?” he heaved as got up for the fifth time on unsteady legs. The Blue Paladin noticed how Y/n was a little out of breath and could stop himself from grinning lopsidedly. “Did I tire you out that much?” 

The Altean rolled her eyes but didn’t deny her mild breathlessness as Lance shuffled closer. 

“Did I perhaps, take your breath away?“ Y/n snorted, with a shake of her head and a point to the door. 

“Go get your breakfast, Lance,” she chided half heartedly with a chuckle. He thankfully obeyed after saluting playfully. Ignoring the painful throbbing in his legs was easy due the swell of his mood.

 

 

And then there were two, Y/n mused while facing the smaller girl. She was impressed at how well she was doing after training for the longest. 

“More often than not, you’ll probably be up against opponents bigger and stronger than you, Pidge,” she began remembering how she was taught, being a small girl herself. “You’re more than able to outsmart your enemies, but sometimes it pays to know how to use other people’s strength against them.” 

 

The green Paladin nodded eagerly, completely focused on her every word. The human was more than ready to learn how to kick ass so she’d be that one step closer to saving her family. Pidge adjusted her glasses smugly.

“I have a lanky older brother, I know how to take down taller enemies,” she bragged jokingly, surprising herself as it didn’t hurt as much as expected to talk about Matt. The Altean made a sound of agreement, Blaytz being her major brother figure. 

“You a veteran then? Then I suppose you know it’s all about their centre of gravity at the sternum and use of momentum.” Each familiar word was music to her ears as the new information was safely stored away in her brain. “Try knock me off of my feet.” 

 

 

With a grunt that came with the breath being knocked out of her lungs, Y/n found herself on her back with the Paladin on her torso. The electric hum of her bayard was right at the Altean’s ear. 

Pidge took a moment to catch her breath, taking a moment for the realisation to dawn on her. A bright smile appeared on her victorious face.

”I did it! I knocked you down!” she exclaimed while the alien nodded with a proud look on her face.

”That you did, Pidge,” Y/n agreed, looking up as a different thing made her breathless. 

 

Damn these quiznacking pretty humans!


	9. Let’s see how far we’ve come...

The Altean cracked her knuckles absentmindedly while leaning against the wall of the kitchen. She watched passively as Coran began to make one of his ‘Paladin lunch specialties’. Y/n found herself glad to have a short break while the Paladins had free reign to get used to forming Voltron.

A light, giddy feeling of accomplishment filled her as she finally accepted the humans as the new Paladins of Voltron. She felt as if her whole torso was previously made of lead but now was airy and light. 

 

The soldier fought valiantly to keep the grimace off her face as the meal certainly didn’t look very appealing. She knew the man only meant well but she vaguelly remembered Gyrgan being the only one of the old Paladins who could actually ingest the oozing mush.

“I’m sure the humans will...love what you made for them, Coran,” she assured him as he prepaired the dish. Uff, he could prep the thing as much as he wanted but it won’t make it taste any better...

“I hope so! They should be back any tic now. I’ll go to greet them, you see if the princess needs any more help with the final nebulon booster!” The ginger announced before sauntering off for the meet-n-greet.

Y/n shook her head with a small snort before making her way to where she last saw her princess. Her footsteps were light as she wondered if she should bring up that Allura was queen now or not. Maybe later. 

 

A quick flash of green and light brown brought her to a halt in the corridor. The green-brown blur backtracked, letting the Altean know that it was Pidge all along. 

“Y/n! Are the prisoners awake yet?” the green Paladin called out, quickly once she acknowledged the said soldier. The girl in question blinked a bit at her eagerness before reluctantly shaking her head.

”No, not yet. But it won’t be long,” she quickly assured, not wanting to disappoint the human who she grew to admire a bit during training. 

‘Gunderson’ tried her best not to seem too disappointed but smiled gratefully at the alien regardless.

”Thanks anyway, Y/n. Later!” Pidge hollered as she turned on her heal to continue jogging to the pod room. The Altean’s eyes widened as she reached out to her retreating figure.

”A-ah, wait! Did you have your...!” She let out a sigh as her yell was for nought. “...lunch.” Right then and there, the soldier made sure to get the smallest human to eat something at some point during the day. An empty stomach could cost a life, after all.

 

Y/n nearly jumped out of her skin when the lights suddenly began to flash red and the alarm began to blare. Was there another attack? The soldier didn’t need much thought in order to make her way swiftly to the dining room where she found her fellow Alteans along with the primary coloured Paladins. With her bayard ready, she went to Allura’s side as the display monitor beeped to life, revealing whatever was threatening the castle.

 

Her eyes narrowed at the sight of a small, horned native shuffling from rock to rock in the hopes of approaching the castle undetected. ‘Too late for that’, the soldier thought dryly, but the more she looked, the more she found them absolutely quiznacking adorable.

“What is that?” Keith half demanded, proving that he wasn’t as easily swayed by cuteness as the castle’s monitor zoomed in on the creature. With a small flash, her bayard was put away as the horned being didn’t look threatening in any way. Just curious.

”I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s a local Arusian,” Allura suggested as it shuffled closer, yelling and brandishing it’s odd weapon. “He’s approaching the castle.”

”Aw!” the Yellow Paladin cooed at the creature as he thought along the same lines as Y/n.

“He doesn’t look too dangerous,” Lance mused, making the soldier hum in agreement. She often came across species that looked cute and harmless but actually were quite the opposite. But the Arusian appeared to be like a child pretending to be a brave warrior. Too cute. The raven haired Paladin still had his suspicions.

”You never know,” he warned as he summoned his bayard, but it didn’t do anything to dim the enthusiasm of the others. At least it reminded the Altean soldier that she had to at least pretend to protect the princess from the cute invader. 

“No, Alteans believe in peace first. Let’s go and welcome them,” Allura intervened before turning away as her friend began to wonder why the missing two humans didn’t seem to respond to the alarm. She internally dismissed the thought before moving quickly to match the princess’ pace. 

 

 

The main doors to the castle opened at Allura’s command with a groan and caused dust to rise from being closed for so long. 

In the corner of her eye, Y/n saw the Arusian scurry into a nearby bush. Just in case he actually was a dangerous threat, the soldier decided to step up and lead the group to investigate the native. Once they were at a closer distance from the eyes that peaked out from the shrub, she got down on one knee to match the Arusian’s height in a respectful manner.

 

”Greetings, we know you’re there. No harm will come to you,” the princess encouraged behind her, bending over a little with her hands on her knees. Y/n stayed kneeling before the creature, even when he summersaulted out of the bush dramatically, sticking the landing in a battle stance with his sword-club-thing a hairs distance away from her nose. Hunk just found him more adorable while the red Paladin stepped forward at the threatening move, bayard ready.

“Drop your weapon!” he ordered, making the lowered Altean sigh slightly. Oh human of little faith..

“No one takes Klaizap’s weapon!” ‘Klaizap’ defied the defensive boy, aiming the sword now at him. Before the situation could get out of hand, Y/n raised both her hands in surrender.

”No one will take your weapon, kind warrior. Apologies for the misunderstanding. What brings you here to the castle?”

The little being looked taken aback from the soldier’s diplomatic words before squaring his shoulders and holding the weapon loosely. 

“I am Klaizap, bravest of our warriors. Our village is over Gazrel Hill. I come seeking answers as to why the Lion Goddess is angered with her followers,” he introduced animatedly while bravely keeping direct eye contact.

“Followers?” Coran questioned, hands on his hips while his form inclined forward but the Yellow Paladin was more curious about the ‘lion goddess’ part.

”The one the Ancients spoke of,” the native clarified, gesturing dramatically to a nearby stone. A geometric incision of someone with a lion’s head was carved out with remarkable symmetry.

 

”What makes you think she’s angered?” Allura asked patiently.

”Destruction is everywhere. In the past few suns, fire has rained from the heavens and a giant has danced in the sky!” Y/n managed to hear Hunk’s loud whispering going on behind her after the Arusian’s explanation.

“I think he’s talking about Voltron.” The soldier found herself snorting at the remark as she rose to her feet while Lance raised a brow.

“Yeah, we got that.”

“You have not angered the Lion Goddess,” the princess assured. Klaizap looked astounded at that fact, his ruby eyes wide in a way that made Y/n struggle not to bend down and hug him. So cute...

“How can you be certain?” 

The princess beamed like the sun and clasped her hand together as practiced diplomacy kicked in. Here we go.

“I know because I am Allura and this is my castle,” she presented kindly.

 

The small warrior looked between the two Altean women and gasped before making an elaborate, four-step bow before them with his weapon in both hands. 

“Lion Goddess!”

“Please, bravest warrior, rise and take us to your village so that we may meet our neighbours,” Allura requested, taking the new title in her stride. The red Paladin turned to look at her skeptically as the other girl linked her hands together behind her back.

“What about our mission to get off this planet and fight Zarkon?" he asked incredulously, not really seeing the point behind all these niceties if it delayed the final fight between them and the Galra Empire. But the princess just smiled patiently before explaining.

"Part of the Paladins’ mission is to spread peace and diplomacy throughout the universe. Arus has been our host for 10,000 years. These people deserve our thanks." The still kneeling Arusian beamed up at them.

 

 

After changing into more suitable outfits for going out and about, the Alteans were led to the Arusian village nearby. The three present Paladins followed after on their Lions full of gifts for the natives, much to their delight. Festive, traditional music played and the supplies were distributed by Hunk and Y/n. Her sense of Altean pride swelled as she had greatly missed the warm feeling she got after meeting a new species. From what she observed, they didn't have any sort of technology, but they lived in peace together. 

 

The gathered crowd of excited natives parted to reveal their leader who bowed his large head before the Princess.

"Oh lion goddess, I king of the Arusians, formally beg your forgiveness. Please have mercy on us and accept our traditional Dance of Apology as atonement for our wrongdoings." Allura exchanged a curious look with her friend, who then turned her head to share the look with the Blue Paladin who shrugged, not seeing the harm in indulging in a little dance of apology. With that, the king clapped his hands twice that summoned a female Arusian who was rather short of breath. She rushed forward and went into a sort of stance, waiting for the signal to start. "Commence dance of apology! Hoorah!"

 

A low horn sounded at his announcement and the four other natives in position began to drum a steady beat as the others began to cheer. It was quite the spectacle. Y/n believed that she'd enjoy it more if the poor girl didn't look so scared. Then again, this was probably the first time she performed in front of someone she believed was an all-powerful goddess. The princess noticed her discomfort and, instead of going along with the strange custom for any longer, put a stop to it.

 

"Please, there’s no need for this."

"Moontow, halt!" the King called out almost instantly after her announcement. The soldier winced a bit as the Arusian dancer stopped while in an awkward position. A tense silence replaced the upbeat music that made Y/n look around wearily, not quite reaching for her bayard yet, but some Arusians began to cry at Allura's refusal. Oh dear. “The goddess has refused the apology. Start the sacrificial fire! We must throw ourselves in.”

Well, as humans would say, the shit hit the fan at the king’s order. The Arusians began to scream in a panic as a prepared wood pile on a pedestal was set on fire.

“No! No sacrifices!” Allura cried out desperately. No one could’ve predicted that the Arusians would go to such extremes over a rejected dance so quickly. The King hesitated before beginning to grin, as Y/n tried to ignore that a native was already tied up to a stake, ready to be sacrificed. 

“So, we may proceed with the dance?” The princess could only smile nervously, making the other girl bite her cheek to hide an amused grin.

“That’s a better alternative,” Allura agreed and with another two claps, the dance continued and finished as if nothing happened.

Once the ritual was complete, ‘Moontow’ bowed lowly with the other Arusians following suit behind her. Flattered, the Altean royalty began to put the whole ‘Lion Goddess’ act to an end.

 

”Oh my. Please, please rise. Thank you for that, but I am not a great being worthy of your worship. I accidentally put you all in danger. It is I who should be apologising to you,” Y/n sucked at her teeth at her wording but stayed in silent admiration of her honesty. The shocked Arusians began to rise to their feet at the reveal. “I am princess Allura of Altea and these are the Voltron Paladins along with my fellow Altean friends. Although we originally came from different worlds…and have very, very, very different traditions, we wish to live alongside you as friends.”

“But the mighty robotic angel… has it not come to destroy us because of our immoral ways?” the native leader asked, raising his hands up in confusion. Y/n narrowed her eyes a bit at the King, wondering what immoral ways they had apparently committed.

“Voltron? No. In fact, that mighty robot is here to protect,” Allura assured with another one of her smiles that made you believe everything will be okay. She extended her arms and addressed the large group of Arusians. “Let it be known that Voltron will protect every innocent being throughout the universe!”

The crowd were so captivated by her speech that they rushed forward, cheering and beginning to hug team Voltron. Three of the small beings were being carried albeit awkwardly by the soldier as the nice feeling of fulfilment grew inside her.

 

Shiro and Pidge were really missing out, she thought to herself before being distracted by the surprised look on the red paladin’s face as an Arusian leaped into his arms.

“I don’t…usually hug strangers, but, uh…,” Keith trailed off, patting the little guy’s head awkwardly. “Man, you are cuddly.” Both he and the Altean observer were caught off-guard by the deep voice he had when he showed his thanks. 

“That was an unexpected turn of events,” she mused to herself with a growing grin before her attention was caught elsewhere.

 

”Hey Y/n!” Hunk called out to her with a variety of Arusians using him as a mode of transport. “How many of these little guys can you carry?” The Altean blinked before thinking about how light the natives were, then surveyed how many were about. Feeling a tad bit of competitiveness surge through her, she grinned at the human. 

“All of them!”

 

 

Allura watched nervously as Hunk with Lance on his shoulders carefully gathered up every Arusian arround onto a large, wooden cart that the soldier was lifting. After she passed twenty, she began to feel the strain on her arms.

Two Arusians hung on each bicep while another pair clung to each leg. Being surrounded by adorable, pleasant natives made it impossible for her to stop the goofy grin from forming. Coran kept count on the amount of Arusians she was carrying while the red Paladin watched, trying to pretend that he wasn’t amused. 

Even the King had joined in on the fun, being hauled up and carefully placed among his people, weighing considerably more than the average Arusians. Y/n felt sweat build up along the back of her neck as she grinned at her fretting friend.

 

“Don’t worry so much, ‘Rura. I can handle a few of these little guys.” The princess rolled her eyes playfully at her claim and raised a brow.

”It’s not you I’m worrying about,” she shot down, making the girl’s eyes widen and the broad grin fading to a more lopsided one. The Yellow Paladin, having heard everything, winced sympathetically while lifting up a peach-pink Arusian. 

“Ooh, that was harsh, man. Don’t worry Y/n, if it makes you feel any better, I am definitely worrying about you being crushed by this wooden thing.” 

”Yeah! And we think you’re cool for doing this!”

 

The lifting Altean puffed out her cheek a bit as the strain increased. She looked to see the bottom half of the Samoan male as Y/n was careful not to lose her balance. Wven though she didn’t quite understand Lance’s input, and her feelings weren’t (majorly) hurt by the princess’s words, she was grateful.

”Thank you, I think.”

 

But of course, all good things come to an end.

Y/n vaguely heard the sound of the missing Black Paladin’s panicked voice coming from the princess’ earpiece, being an instant cause for alarm bells to go off in her mind.

 

“Team come in! We need backup! Hello?” Shiro called out desperately, making the soldier’s eyes widen along with her princess’.

“Shiro?” The name of the absent leader caught the red paladin’s attention as he moved from his almost brooding position by a tree.

”What’s going on?” he asked, stepping closer to her.

Y/n nearly lost her balance as the ground began to tremor beneath her feet. Is it an earthquake? She shook her head at that thought, as a rumbling noise was getting louder from above. 

The soldier carefully set down the cart with Allura’s help before she looked up to the sky. The Arusians began to panic and cling to each other in frightened confusion as a large vessel entered the atmosphere. Keith’s eyes widened at the threatening sight coming right towards a clearing near by. 

“Oh no. We gotta get to our lions!”

Allura was quick to take control of the situation and turned to the Arusians, instructing them all to take cover. Even the Yellow Paladin was convinced by her words of wisdom and began to follow the crowd, running swiftly past the girls.

“I’m on it!” 

His plan to flee was however foiled by Keith who grabbed him by the armour at his neck. It was a truly pitiful sight, seeing as how he accepted his fate. Y/n would’ve gladly taken his place, but the princess put her on ‘keeping the Arusians safe’ duty.

 

The impact of the burning vessel made the ground shake more violently before as the King led his people and the Alteans to a sturdy cave near by. 

 

Y/n didn’t like leaving the humans to fight their first battle alone. They had no sort of backup plan or artillery assistance from the castle. But the princess managed to convince her otherwise in the safety of the damp cavern.

”They can handle this, have faith,” Allura assured gently with a smile as she had several natives huddling around her for safety. The soldier still didn’t like it, but nodded anyway, praying to all the gods she knew that they’d be alright, that they’d remember to fight as one unit.

It was hard to tell what the thing even was, or if it was an actual threat at all. The large, metal case just didn’t scream ‘friendly’ for Y/n anyway. 

 

The Arusians huddled closer as the ground trembled and bits of loose rock fell down from the ceiling. The soldier grimaced and gently pet the head of a shaking native in her arms, holding a few of them protectively. 

Each time a loud rumble caused from severe, blunt trauma on Arus’ surface, Y/n felt her heart sink. She began to doubt the reliability of the cave as a sort of bunker. Getting a bit restless from the anxious aliens, she turned to her ginger friend. 

“Hey, Coran? What was that story you were telling me the other day? The one where you and Alfor once rode a pack of Yelmores?” She called out above the loud stomping and relentless crashes. The male’s eyes widened before he beamed enthusiastically. 

“Ah! What an excellent story! Well, it all started when we were left without any sort communications, surrounded by enemies with no food or water...” 

 

 

Whether it was due to confusion or awe, Coran held the attention of the large group for the duration of the battle outside. Y/n was the first to see Voltron standing victoriously with it’s sword drawn before a charred beast. It felt like a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders as she sighed in relief with a smile growing on her face. 

 

 

Once the all-clear was given, peace had returned to Arus. As soon as the natives were fully assured that they were safe and continue life as normal, the Alteans moved to reunite with the humans back at the castle.

 

It took all of the soldier’s force not to just yell in celebration for them being alive and well, but she had to stay professional. The look on both the green and black paladins’ faces also dampened her mood a tad. She not hold back on her large, proud-mother grin, however.

“Well done Paladins!” Allura formally congratulated the relieved bunch. Coran has moved quickly to check on the prisoners once everything was sorted. The blue Paladin puffed up proudly at that, feeling like a hero from a comic book.

”Heh, the Galra learned that its gonna take a lot more than a giant robot to defeat Voltron!” he stated proudly as Pidge not-so-subtly left the scene. 

“Don’t get too cocky Lance, we barely managed to defeat this guy,” Keith swiftly chided, not intentionally wanting to bring down the victorious mood but he didn’t want the Cuban’s head to swell too much. “If Shiro didn’t remember how to beat him-“

”Ah nonono, stop with the maybe talk man! I do not want to think about what could’ve happened,” the Yellow Paladin made his input clear while shuddering. The little sparked argument made the Alteans share a weary look. 

“Ah...well, there’s some dinner prepared you you all in the dining room!” the princess quickly intervened as Y/n’s attention shifted once the leader of the humans following after the green Paladin. She clicked her tongue lightly. Two paladins missing lunch and dinner? Not on her watch.

 

She didn’t really bother much with seeing the prisoners off after an escape pod was prepared once the dust had officially settled. They had changed into their recreational clothing by now and the adrenaline of a full-on battle had begun to wear off. 

 

With a light skip to her step, Y/n carried two plates full o’ goo as she went in search of the pair of Paladins that had been rather scarce all day. She mentally prepped herself up for the food delivery as the Castle’s monitors indicated they were just outside one of the side entrances.

 

Lo and behold, Pidge was embracing the black Paladin tightly as they sat before the setting sun. On the crumbling ruins of a sort of bridge. A very narrow, very old bridge with no sort of support. Oh dear.

The soldier with years of experience in warfare had probably one fatal flaw, and that was the crippling fear of heights. After taking a deep breath, severely unsettled at the fact that her hands weren’t free, Y/n slowly but surely made her way to the humans.

“Uh, everything okay Y/n?” Her shoulders tensed when Shiro noticed her awkward approach. She didn’t look up from her feet as he let out a tense burst of nervous laughter. 

“Mhm, yep, absolutely doing just fine Shiro, thank you for asking,” the soldier assured meakly in one breath, holding out the two dishes. “I uh, noticed that you two missed both lunch and dinner so, I decided to bring you some food.”

 

The humans shared a look, knowing exactly what someone with a fear of heights looked like, since they both had experience with Matt. Y/n heard some rustling but didn’t dare move her eyes from her feet. She felt a warm hand briefly on her head before the plates were taken from her as another, smaller pair of hands gently grasped her own. 

“Thanks Y/n, now let’s go back inside,” Pidge mused lightly, making the Altean sigh in relief. The human girl turned to face the Castle and placed Yn’s hands on her shoulders, connecting the two in a sort of train.

The soldier made the discovery that the mice were also present when the rodents scurried from the Green Paladin’s hold to rest on her shoulders as comfort.

”I’m right behind you,” Shiro assured as he faithfully guarded the caboose during the little train’s journey back to the castle. 

Admittedly, the Altean felt a little silly but thankful regardless to the odd human method to deal with the dreaded heights as they made their way, chatting leisurely. It was surprisingly easy for Y/n to depend on the humans now that she let herself indulge in the luxury.

 

“Thank you..”


	10. I believe it all is coming to an end...

By nightfall, everyone was ready for bed. The mice diligently followed the princess to her chambers, Coran was doing one last check on the Castle’s systems and Y/n led the group of weary humans to their (hopefully not final) resting place. After all she didn’t expect them, or anyone really, to be able to remember where to go after just one day.

Once she finished escorting them, she pivoted on her heal to make her leave when one of the Paladins cleared their throat loudly. The Altean blinked and turned her head to see the stationary humans that were looking expectingly at her. 

 

“Is there…something you need?” she asked, a little hesitant at the odd grins on three of Paladins. Even the two more ‘professional soldiers’ donned strange smiles. 

“Yeah, you could say that,” Lance drawled, stepping closer before the Yellow Paladin pushed forward, looking like an excitable pup.

“Can you show us it?” he blurted as the other girl’s glasses caught the light in a way that made them glint ominously. 

 

The Altean tilted her head in confusion before it clicked. Her face promptly became a nice shade of scarlet. She had been hoping that they had forgotten about the princess’s earlier comment. 

“A-ah...of course. I’ll show you my....my knife collection,” she mumbled as embarrassment and general fatigue took its toll on her form. She stiffly moved back to face her bedroom with the humans at her heals.

 

The automatic door opened revealing a decently sized room that was borderline cluttered with various bits and bobs. Despite the sheer amount of things around the place, it was neat and tidy, like everything had its rightful place.

Well, everything but two hand-sized craters on the ground.

Everything was illuminated by the pulsing light from a number of coloured geodes. It was almost too much for the humans to handle at once, fixing their feet to the floor. It begun to make Y/n a bit nervous as they inspected her personal space from the doorway.

 

The Blue Paladin whistled in awe at the various alien gadgets and gizmos laying around, being the one brave enough to take the first step to investigate the unknown. Some items he could recognise despite the Altean-human cultural differences, like a hairbrush of sorts and pair of purple lion slippers. The rest was just how he imagined a hot alien’s bedroom to look like. And better.

Pidge shuffled over to the ‘cool-tech-corner’ with wide eyes. Her fingertips gently brushed across the geometric engravings a palm-sized cube that emitted a neon green light. Its light stuttered to a stop before the device projected a larger cube with gridded sides. The holographic pieces on two opposite sides made her eyes widen in recognition.

”Woah, space chess!” she mused as she discovered that the little statues were tangible, catching the owner’s attention. 

“Ah, that's a classic Altean game used to train the mind,” Y/n explained, stepping a bit closer with an easier smile. Maybe now the humans will be too distracted by the other objects to bother with the knives... “I can teach you how to play some other time, if you’d like.”

The Green Paladin’s posture stiffened at the invitation, making her begin to second-guess her plan to leave Voltron and go search for her family. If said plan is successful, then she doubted she’d ever see the Altean again.

”Right...sure thing.”

 

Y/n faltered at the other female’s response and body language. It was a struggle to try decide whether she should say something else or do nothing. Luckily for her, she didn’t have to. 

“Ohh, Y/n, who’s this?” Hunk called out curiously while pointing out a picture the girl had hanging on her bedside. It displayed two Alteans, one being their reluctant host. Both were in shiny, new uniforms and looked to the viewer with rather serious expressions. The stranger had greying hair tied back into a tight bun and cold, (e/c) eyes. 

The Blue Paladin sat down on her bed and peered at image with a growing smirk. 

“Jeez, looks like we found the female version of Iverson,” he commented with a snicker, making light of the alien’s expression.

”That’s my mother.”

 

Lance paled at that calm statement, his brain shutting down as all those who had the displeasure of meeting the one-eyed teacher had varying success in hiding their amusement. He slowly turned to the slightly confused girl as the humans threw him under the bus for his slip-up.

“A-ah- I knew that! It’s...uh, i-it’s a human compliment! -To be called an Iverson means someone is uh very, very powerful and responsible!” the Cuban quickly explained standing back up as Hunk gave him a thumbs up while struggling not to laugh. The red paladin’s expression darkened at the mention of the man’s name as he subtly stepped away from Shiro. 

 

The soldier’s eyes widened at he definition of this ‘Iverson’, though a brow raised a bit at the various reactions of the humans. 

“I see... Thank you, Lance,” she finally stated, feeling humbled as the smallest human snickered into her palms. The said male slumped in relief and brushed off the gratitude a bit nervously.  
Nice save. 

“Alright, let’s get out of Y/n’s hair and get some sleep,” the dad of the group cut in with an apologetic smile aimed at the Altean after he tried to read one of the old books stacked on a shelf. He was met with practically no objections as slowly each of the humans turned to make their leave.

To Y/n’s mild surprise, Keith lingered a little longer as the others left. Nobody else seemed to notice how he stayed behind, facing the door as if he was contemplating hard on something important. 

 

“Is...there something wrong, Keith?” she asked carefully, clasping her hands together tightly. His shoulders tensed as if he forgot she was there, before he turned around. The girl was momentarily distracted by his guarded posture and how his thumbs rubbed against his middle and forefingers to catch onto his mumbling. “Ah- sorry, what was that?”

As if defying the laws of human anatomy, his form tensed further, like a cornered animal. Her eyes widened as his hand twitched towards the dagger at his side.

”Can...can I see your knife collection,” he repeated a bit louder as if she was forcing the words out of him. Y/n’s eyes widened and softened at his rather grave demeanour for such a small request that stemmed from a terrible pun. 

“Of course, I- sorry I had forgotten about it,” she lied lightly before turning around and pressing her palm to a specific section on the wall above her pillow. 

 

Once her back was turned, Keith dared to look towards the Altean, though his attention was quickly directed further up to the shifting wall that revealed at least three dozen knives. It took a lot to take the usually stoic teen by surprise. But, if you listened closely, you could hear his jaw hit the floor at that moment.

 

No two blades looked the same, some didn’t even look like they could cut through warm butter. Others, however, seemed capable of cutting through steel with a light tap. His heart sunk a bit as he didn’t see any that looked similar to his after a quick look over the collection. But it failed to stop the small seed of hope from settling in his chest, making his heart speed up.

Once he noticed the uncomfortable silence, he hesitated a little longer before holding up his unsheathed blade. The Altean’s interest peaked at the grand reveal, suddenly getting the feeling that the human wasn’t here for the pun. What a waste. 

She let him approach her tentatively as he stared down at his knife as if thinking hard about what he’s about to do. He slowly unwrapped a decent amount of clean bandages that had covered the hilt and a glowing, purple symbol at the cross-guard. For a dreadful second, the soldier in Y/n thought he was going to try shank her now that he had her alone and cornered. But she quickly dismissed that idea as quickly as it came to her, for he wouldn’t. He couldn’t possibly be that stupid, could he?

 

The quickly spiraling thoughts halted abruptly as the red Paladin held it up parallel to the floor, glinting slightly in the palms of his two hands, drawing her eyes intently. This brought a whole new worry to the Altean’s mind. What did he expect from her? A compliment? It was a nice blade though so it would be genuine at least.

Thankfully, before she could embarrass herself, Keith spoke with a certain fondness for the item that honestly took her by surprise. “Do you...recognize anything about this knife? Where it’s from, who owned it, anything?” 

 

Y/n bit into the inside of her cheek at that, though she couldn't help but feel a little honored that he entrusted the knowledge of the knife to her and that she had the appearance of an arms expert of sorts. Her lips twitched a little into a nervous smile at the responsibility before nodding quickly. 

“Sure, I’ll try my best,” she promised as she lifted her hand towards the dagger before hesitating and looking up at his violet eyes. “May I?” 

Keith nodded almost immediately, though he appreciated the consideration. With that, the almost complete and utter stranger took hold of his precious item and examined it carefully. She handled it as if it was a delicate, ancient relic, but it honestly did nothing to ease the poor boy’s blood pressure. Her fingertips skimmed carefully along the dark metal as she hummed lightly. 

 

“The make is definitely familiar, but the style of craftsmanship is of Daibazaal,” she murmured almost to herself rather than the worried knowledge seeker. Her brows furrowed tightly in concentration as her thumb brushed across the odd symbol. With a light shake of her head and a guilty feeling weighing down on her stomach, Y/n held out the blade back to it's owner. "I'm sorry, I can't recognize anything else...I guess a lot of weapons have been made in the past ten thousand years," she admitted lightly, attempting to smile. His mood visibly dampened but his eyes remained hopeful. 

"Where's Diabazaal?" the human asked after a short moment of silence. Whatever bit of hope that remained was dispelled at the grimace the girl wore but tried to hide.

"It...it was the home planet of the Galra."

 

The soldier regretted what she revealed instantly at his expression. She internally cursed her inability to know what information to withhold and what to provide. The princess always had this skill, leading to one of the many reasons why Y/n believed that she’d be a great ruler. 

Back to the uncomfortable exchange between introverts, they had a mutual feeling neither of them knew what to make of this new information. The Altean wasn’t personally planning to pry into his past, not tonight anyway. Yet she couldn’t deny that the story behind this little weapon was bound to be an interesting one.

Meanwhile, the human was also wondering how on Earth he managed to possess an alien dagger. After that bomb shell, Keith was quick to excuse himself, leaving the anxious alien to her thoughts. 

 

Sleeping that night didn't come easy for many of the inhabitants of the Castle of Lions.

Some contemplated death or escape. 

Others were busy thinking of those they left behind or who left them behind. 

 

Morning soon came whether those certain people liked it or not. Thankfully it was difficult to remain in a slump when there an air of celebration all around. The younger humans in particular were relieved that they were free to chill for today. The Alteans honestly didn’t know when the next time they’ll be able to relax would be once they begin to turn the tables on the Galra’s oppressive regime over most of the galaxy. Might as well take it easy while they can.

 

For Y/n, there was nothing more relaxing than to tinker around with her Explorer or train until her arms felt like they’d fall off. Unfortunately for her, Coran was hellbent on making her befriend the Paladins so she was sent to interact with them. 

 

A weary sigh escaped her lips as she approached one of the recreational rooms where she could hear the loud voices of the humans. Her hands clasped together tightly before her as she peaked nervously around the corner. Once she was spotted, however, she jumped like a child caught trying to steal a cookie from the jar.

 

”Oh, hey Y/n!” Hunk greeted merrily with a wave, being the first of the three occupants of the room to notice her lurking awkwardly by the door. The said girl managed a sheepish grin while approaching the trio. “We were just talking about how many Arusians you carried yesterday.”

The now flustered soldier rubbed the back of her neck out of habit as she noticed the Blue Paladin scooting to the left on the couch, patting the now free space between himself and Pidge.

“Ah…I may have gotten a little carried away yesterday,” she mused modestly and had no choice but to sit in the spot Lance so graciously created for her. Out of habit, the girl sat with her hands under her thighs, a practice advised by the princess herself in order to stop her fidgeting. She had yet to find a method to stop herself from bouncing her leg though...

 

The other female snickered lightly at the pun and pushed her glasses further up her nose as Hunk grinned happily, enjoying the alien’s additional presence already.

"Ready for some more lessons on human communication?” Lance quickly challenged followed by a swift brow wiggle that hid his desperation to escape a pun fest. His statement caused the Altean’s eyes to widen and glisten in anticipation. 

“Oh yes please, if you don’t mind.” With the girl’s confirmation, the lecturer of the day cleared his throat dramatically, causing his closest friend to roll his eyes at her peripheral.

 

"First of all, I’m gonna teach one how to use my personal favourite way of interacting with others; pickup lines!" he introduced lavishly, making Y/n’s eyebrows crease. She was too focused on the important lesson to notice the other two humans discretely discussing predictions about what would happen next. Some underage betting may have also been involved...

"Pick up lines?" The human nodded encouragingly at how she repeated it, enthusiastic to spread his vast knowledge on the arts of flirting.

"Yeah! It's a phrase-thing you say to make others feel good, like a compliment. But sometimes it makes people uncomfortable or mad so you gotta watch out for that," he quickly warned, making her hum lowly in growing understanding.

“So...like that thing that you said earlier about the partical barrier?” His form deflated a little at the mentioning of his previous failed pick-up line. It would’ve been so, so good, if only the team leader didn’t absolutely murder it before Lance even finished.

 

“Yeah, like that. But sometimes it can be like a question that you also give the answer. For example...” he trailed off before going full throttle suave-mode with Hunk faintly muttering a ‘here we go’ in the background. “Are you wearing space pants?” he practically purred, drawing Y/n’s questionable attention to her legs. Just when she was about to agree they were in space so therefore they could very well be called ‘space pants’, he provided an answer that made her pointed ears redden. “‘Cause your legs are out of this world~”

 

With a suddenly dry mouth, she nodded in better understanding of the human custom. Her ears didn’t fail to pick up the increadibly soft breath of a disbelieving ‘it worked?’ that came from her equally bashful mentor. 

“Wh-Why don’t you give it a try?” he stammered while trying to ignore his treacherous, so-called friends who sniggered.

 

Y/n hummed a little in thought, eager to change the subject, and looked around her for any sort of romantic inspiration. Her scrutinising attention soon was brought again to the boy closest to her. One might've thought she had a premature case of the slipperies with how clammy her palms were getting before she steeled her nerves.

"I-Is uh...this a couch? Cause your...face is nice," she managed to mumble, her voice growing fainter with each word. Confidence was such a fickle, frail thing to the Altean, especially when it came to this sort of thing. Just...interracting with others, really.

 

To her surprise though, the Cuban’s face began to take on a nice shade of dark pink, but not for the reason she believed. Y/n’s confidence restored a little at the result. Her successfully picked up victim didn’t have the heart to correct her meek attempt at ‘wooing’. To her audience, she was just too cute and pure and sure of herself to be put down.

 

Hunk had a hand clutching his shirt, right over where his heart was hammering against his ribcage. In his humble opinion, that was the best pickup line he ever heard in his entire life. I mean, he felt pretty wooed right now. It really was all about the delivery and not the phrase.

The green paladin rolled her eyes in disappointment, but definitely not surprise, at how weak her team mates were. She let out a sigh and cut in before the boys could say anything.

”Sometimes, if you encounter feeble prey like these two, that might work,” the smaller girl started, deflating the Altean’s victorious mood slightly but her eyes still held determination to learn and improve more. An admirable feat, Pidge acknowledged with a glint in her glasses. “But usually the two parts have to link together, to have some sort of connection that would in turn flatter the victim. Like uhhh... Lance had the link with the space and the ‘out of this world’ thing.”

 

The said teen, who now snapped out of his flustered daze, grew displeased to say the least that his lesson was being taken over. With his bottom lip jutted out in a pout, he let out a huff and begrudgingly nodded in agreement at the advice. The other ‘feeble prey’ winced a little at the green gremlin’s phrasing. 

“Why must you make it sound so...menacing?” he whined as the alien was swiftly consumed in her own thoughts, carefully heeding this new advice.

 

Y/n’s eyes widened when she figured out the perfect one. It may be a little complex, but she believed it worked pretty well. Her lungs felt scalding in her chest as her shaky hands formed a set of weary finger guns, successfully capturing the attention of the humans. A lopsided grin stretched across her warm face as her courage was fuelled by the kind looks on the humans’ faces. 

 

”Are- are you gravitational force? Because you’re always attractive,” she blurted after a deep breath of air before she could lose her nerve completely. 

 

To her delight, the self-proclaimed loverboi slowly leaned backwards ‘till he was laying flat on his back on the couch with his lanky legs splayed out and his hands pressed against his scarlet visage. The Altean vaguely heard a muffled muttering of an ‘I taught you so well’.

Hunk let out an awed gasp at the physics related line, feeling particularly impressed at how it could be used on anyone anywhere in the galaxy and still work. He thought he felt flustered after the first line, but this was a whole other story. The fact that over a few days he went from intimidated to almost smitten nearly gave him whiplash.

Even the other female felt the affect of the affection and mirrored the Altean’s expression. 

“You did it! Holy crow- that was amazing Y/n!” she gushed, not usually being that into flirting and such, but this was her language the said soldier was speaking. Therefore she couldn’t deny the added colour that spread across her cheeks. 

 

The Altean bashfully rubbed the back of her neck at the praise, not exactly sure what was supposed to happen after the picking up part was finished. But unfortunately she didn’t have time to ask as in stepped the bewildered but amused team leader. 

“What did I miss?” Shiro asked after observing his crew and the friendlier host, placing both hands on his hips. 

 

With little to no hesitation, she turned to the black paladin, wielding two finger guns. 

“Are you gravitational force? Cause you’re always attractive!” Y/n repeated, beaming towards the oldest human, catching him off-guard completely. The black paladin blinked a few times as the cogs in his brain began to turn. Once the line fully registered in his mind, he felt uncomfortably warm up his neck and chiselled cheekbones. Shiro could only chuckle awkwardly in response and try not to let the green paladin’s snickers get to him. Thankfully, before he could respond, Y/n quickly answered the question he posed initially.

 

”I learned how to do the lines that pick up!” she announced, thoroughly proud of herself though her attention was swiftly diverted back to the now groaning Cuban boy. Hunk gently patted the said boy’s shoulder as he struggled not to laugh. 

“You’ve created something too powerful, Lance,” the Yellow Paladin mused lightly with a snicker as the other girl was close to cackling, especially as the Altean looked confused at their reactions.

 

The leader of Voltron smiled like a Disney Prince at the scene, only able to imagine what had conspired between them as his brief blush faded.

”Well, congratulations Y/n, but the lesson will have to continue later,” he started, making Y/n force herself not to pout in disappointment. “We need to help prepare the castle for the Arusians that’ll be coming over.”

This time the Blue Paladin groaned for a reason that the Altean could understand.


	11. Oh well, I guess we're gonna pretend...

Y/n fought hard to hold back the yawn that threatened to forcefully unhinge her jaw as the whole Voltron team were forced to watch a long…long rendition of the previous day’s adventure. It involved the Arusian King narrating and a handful of his subjects acting. The soldier’s neck hurt from her head tilting up to see the spectacle from the very top of the castle’s grand staircase. Every once in a while she’d make eye contact with either an exasperated paladin or a patient princess.

 

Her arms crossed neutrally as she switched her weight from one foot to the other for the umpteenth time. When an unexpected extra weight was added, her shoulders tensed and she tilted her now heavy head back a bit to see the perpetrator. When Y/n saw that it was the blue paladin, and that he was still keeping his attention towards the play (not paying any mind to his slightly unwilling arm-rest), she just rolled her eyes lightly before viewing the ending ‘entertainment’ before them. This was a good thing, right? Good progress, Y/n, now if you could stop feeling a tad too hot in the facial region that would be great.

“The monster fell from the sky! It was an epic battle, but Voltron was victorious!” the King proclaimed dramatically to mark the end, hopefully. Unfortunately, the group of actors that formed Voltron collapsed in a heap on the floor. 

Even though it wasn’t the first time the poor Arusians did this sort of mix up, they were just way to adorable for her to be frustrated. All she felt was fatigue.

 

“No. I said, ‘Voltron was victorious’!” the King repeated, finally finishing the reenactment. Y/n smoothly grabbed a chalice of Nunvill from one of the floating trays as it passed her just in time for the Arusians to cheer happily and raise their respective cups. The soldier struggled not to dramatically collapse from exhaustion against Lance before the princess spoke up. She had a reputation to maintain, after all.

 

“Thank you, Your Majesty, for that... wonderful production,” she began towards the other member of royalty before turning to the rest of the audience. “It saddens me that we must leave tomorrow, but we must continue our battle with Zarkon and spread peace throughout the universe.” Her voice projected through the large room, echoing off the towering walls. Allura held out the compact communication device with an award-winning smile. “Your Highness, please accept this gift. This will allow you to contact us anytime you need help. Arus will be the first planet in the Voltron Alliance.”

 

The Arusian King beamed, feeling honoured while holding the gift delicately before beginning a loud cheer that got all his subjects pumped up. 

 

This was Lance’s cue to stop leaning on the Altean in order to be with his fellow male paladins, minus their leader who seemed to be brooding by the entrance. The said alien wasn’t sure whether she should go with the Cuban or not. 

She felt that she was welcome and his intention was to have her included in the conversation but ah quiznak, it’s too late, I stood there awkwardly for too long so now it’s impossible to join the trio without feeling like an intruder.

Y/n’s head spun from overthinking everything and downed the oily drink in her hand. A grimace threatened to ruin her composure but once the spine stuttering sensation faded, her social anxiety began to dampen with it. Well, it’s true what they say; ‘Nunvill settles the stomach and brightens your smile.'

 

She could vaguely hear the blue paladin try to demonstrate something to Keith and failing as she slunk back to her reliable source of comfort; the most gorgeous man of all.

Coran was humming to himself while alternating between drinking and dampening his ‘tache with his Altean drink. They stood in comfortable silence with their princess watching over them and the natives wandering around. Some asked to be carried by the soldier who complied courteously. 

The relative peace was interrupted by the sound of loud gagging and the Arusians in Y/n’s arms began squirming to be released. She complied while the disgusted human spun to face the duo. 

 

“Y/n, Coran, what is this?” the Cuban grimaced making the girl smile sympathetically.

“It’s Nunvill,” she explained, realising that now the humans must know that Alteans were not known for their good-tasting food and drink. In fact, the soldier believed her kind might be the worst in the known universe when it comes to making anything remotely delicious. 

“The nectar of the gods!” the ginger piped up, causing Lance to look between him and his cup skeptically. 

“It tastes like hot dog water and feet.” His retort made the female Altean snort and nod in agreement with her arms crossed. Even the optimistic mechanic couldn’t deny the harsh truth with a nod.

“Yeah, makes a wonderful hair tonic as well,” he advised, dipping his fingers in his cup to sprinkle a bit of the liquid on his mustache, causing it to bristle. Y/n grimaced and sympathetically patted the blue paladin’s shoulder three times while he retched.

“Are you feeling alright, Lance?” she fretted, wondering if even the human’s digestive system was also far weaker than Alteans. What if they accidentally poisoned the fragile paladins?

“Try some Nunvill! Settles the stomach and brightens your smile,” Coran recited, causing his fellow Altean to deadpan since the drink was the source of the problem. 

She grew alarmed at how Lance began to sway wearily. They were soon joined by the red and yellow paladins who were curious about his current condition. The soldier looked between the other two primary-coloured paladins who began prodding the sick boy and the ginger who began to make his way to the human leader who was leaning against a column, looking out into the distance dramatically.

 

Y/n couldn’t dwell too long on the brooding paladin when the Cuban began to plummet in her direction. With relative ease, she kept his lithe, limp body up off the ground with her hands cupping his lower back. The spectating humans didn’t take any responsibility for their actions, making her huff.

 

Cutlery in the reach of cute natives caused quite the cacophony, the Altean noted wearily as a pair of said natives were hanging off one of the floating serving dishes.  She didn’t have any time to think about how she’s babysitting a couple hundred children when the human leader spoke up without facing them.

 

“I'm not sure we should be letting everyone wander in and out of the castle like this. It doesn't seem safe,” Shiro fretted, arms firmly crossed. The h/cette had to agree, her own form grew uneasy but at least one trouble was lifted from her when the blue paladin found the will to stand on his own. 

 

“Oh, these Arusians won't hurt anything...much,” the male Altean tried to assure them but it was as if the precariously hanging natives were waiting for their cue to shatter the floating dishware. Coran was quick to recover, “Besides, it's only fair to let them see the inside of a castle that's been sitting on their planet for so long.”

“But who knows when Zarkon will attack again?” the cyborg countered, pushing off lightly from his spot at the wall. “I'm going to do a perimeter check, just in case.” 

 

The debate ended at that with the soldier on the fence as she was quickly reminded that since a whole battle cruiser was destroyed just above the planets surface. There could easily be survivors lurking around right under their noses among the now swarming Arusians. 

 

Y/n barely managed to not trip over the ones that were practically hugging her shins when avoiding the red paladin’s rejected nunvill-spit cocktail. It turned out that Hunk had taken the brunt of the sudden shower. Thankfully he took it as an opportunity to make a joke that made even the more stoic boy laugh.

 

The sight of the four-eyed human stuffing solid sustenance-on-a-stick into a backpack caught Y/n’s eye quickly. Her brow rose as she silently tried to get the other girl’s attention without causing a scene. A suppressed sigh puffed out one of her cheeks when her attempts were fruitless. Now she dramatically believed she’d lose sleep thinking about the green paladin’s quirkiness. Maybe she didn’t want to eat in front of other people? Maybe she had a hidden beast from Earth stowed away in her room?

With that food for thought, Y/n decided to go for some of the available delicacies before Pidge snatched them all. 

 

Her teeth met the wooden stick when she tuned in to what was going on around her, though Y/n took a moment to mourn her finished treat. As her duty to the princess, the castle and the paladins, she decided to go patrol the perimeter. Maybe if she hurried she could do it alongside Shiro for some ‘quality bonding’. 

The soldiers movements faltered however when the blue paladin swiftly passed her by, nearly bumping into her on his rushed getaway up the stairs. She pulled a face at Hunk who just shrugged casually as if his friend didn’t just leave the scene in tears. The Altean guessed that was her signal to drop it, to mind her own business, since the male remaining probably knew a lot more about Lance than she did, including how to deal with him when he’s upset.

Now, Y/n didn’t want to pat herself on the back or anything but after dealing with both the tallest and shortest paladins at once while very high up in the air, she felt confident in her approach to ‘comforting humans’. With a growing feeling of determination, she vowed to herself to go to Lance later and offer some different food to make him feel better. 

 

She spun on her heel to march onward and mingle, only to bump into a familiar, undeniably gorgeous man. Y/n blinked for a moment in bewilderment before tilting her head up beyond the mustache to meet Coran’s scheming gaze. Her blood ran cold as he placed his hands firmly onto her shoulders. 

“Y/n! Why don’t you go see where Lance is headed, hm?” He suggested in his usual chipper tone though it struck fear into the heart of the poor girl. Not now, not where everything’s finally going well.

“Ah- w-well, you see Coran I have a plan to later-“ 

“Ap-ap-ap!” He interrupted her plea, completely vaporising it into thin air and in one, swift movement, he spun the soldier back around to face where the blue boy went off to. “No time like the present!” 

With that last encouragement, Coran gave her one final push towards his goal for her by literally pushing her up the first few steps despite her spluttered protests. After a quick mental recap on the sheer lengths that the male Altean would go through to get Y/n closer to the humans, she decided it wasn’t worth the effort to oppose him. 

But it didn’t mean she had to like it.

 

Her steps seemed louder than usual as she fractionally faster than normal through the room where the seeds of their current adventure were planted. The various sounds of the festivities grew fainter and fainter as Y/n pursed her lips while looking around for any tell-tale signs of the paladin. What would she even do or say when she did find him? 

Before the soldier could think too much on the rather pressing issue, her eyes rose to meet Lance’s back as he sat slouched on the edge of the princess’ podium. Her breath hitched as her steps stuttered, leaving her frozen briefly in mid-step, wondering if he heard her enter the dim room.

 

Y/n shook her head at her own actions before stepping around until she was about two metres away. 

“Mind if I join you, Lance?” she piped up, hands clasped behind her professionally causing the said boy to flinch as if he wasn’t expecting that it was the somewhat alluring soldier that came to his aid. Lance wiped under his nose and cleared his throat in the hopes of appearing like he wasn’t affected by her presence. Instead of answering Y/n directly, he posed the question that plagued his mind.

“How far away from Earth do you think we are?”

 

The Altean wasn’t entirely taken aback by the query but still took her time to think of a right way to respond. She hesitated before stepping closer still to sit next to him.  

“I can’t say for certain, but I can show you,” she suggested and, for Lance anyway, it seemed that the simple phrase was enough to produce a glowing azure map of the known universe. Her arm stretched out towards the small solar system and pointed to the third planet. 

“Earth is over here,” Y/n began gently before swiping her hand across the air before her, making the map whiz by. Pale blue dots turned into wide stripes orbiting them. “Arus is…over this way…somewhere,” she continued to trail off as the distance grew and grew, much longer than she expected. 

 

“You ever notice how far the planets are from each other, Y/n?” The paladin’s wistful, borderline mourning voice caused her voice to die in her throat. 

She felt helplessness hold her down like thick chains as the Cuban stood up and walked forward to try look at the foreign planets. “They’re really, really far away… Like, say, Earth. It's so far, I can't even see it. The- the blue oceans, the white clouds, green grass...I...I can't see any of it.”

 

The soldier felt that the human’s words struck a chord deep within her. Maybe Lance knew it would and that’s why he was being so open about this rather personal problem. She steeled herself before stepping forth to join him and place a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“I understand what you mean, I miss my home too,” Y/n murmured with the most genuine smile she could muster though it ended up tight and small.

 

He would later feel guilty for bringing up the whole ‘mass genocide’ thing in Altea, but for now he just needed to rant. 

“I know we're supposed to be brave paladins and Defenders of the Universe or whatever, but, honestly?” Lance’s whole form slumped as his hand rubbed the back of his neck, averting his gaze, “I just want to go home.”

 

The Altean hummed in agreement and let go of his shoulder after giving it a gentle squeeze, deciding that it was best for her to keep silent so far. Maybe she should have argued more with Coran and the Princess about getting the humans home…

 

Lance looked back to the stationary map, feeling the weight on his chest gradually grow lighter. “I miss rain and splashing in puddles,” he admitted, remembering the feeling fondly like an old friend while Y/n immediately jumped at the opportunity for a topic change that would officially improve his mood.

“Rain?” she piped up curiously with her head tilted, thankfully drawing a smile from him.

“Yeah. It's water that falls from the sky,” the blue paladin explained making her eyes widen in recognition.

“Oh, that sounds lovely!” she gushed before casually leaning her weight on one leg and clasping her hands together. “We had something kind of similar on Altea. Only less…safe and relaxing.” The rather accomplished feeling the Altean felt when he snorted in mirth and raise a brow. 

“Sounds fun.”

 

A more comfortable silence stewed afterwards as the mutual amusement lingered. Y/n hesitated however as she felt she owed him something extra. With squared shoulders, she spoke his name softly but firmly to grab his attention. 

“To be perfectly, completely honest, I don’t know when you’ll go back home,” she began, forcing herself not to avert her gaze from his deflated expression. “But, I can say for certain that I won’t let anything bad happen to you.” 

 

Lance’s eyes widened slowly at her bold statement. His heart stuttered as she placed her right hand over her own. A small flicker of hope sparked in the vast coal of despair. The soldier smiled more confidently and bowed her head, ignoring the little voice in the back of her mind that taunted her. 

How can you possibly believe you could defend anything by yourself? You can’t even guarantee your own safety in a war like this.

“You and your fellow paladins are now officially under my protection until you arrive home, safe and sou-…nd?” her voice faltered when he stepped forward suddenly and embraced her tightly. 

 

The back of her neck felt hot as she couldn’t even see over his shoulder. Her hand that wasn’t squished between them reached behind him to lightly rest against his upper back. The blue paladin gave her (much) smaller form a brief squeeze once she recuperated the hug. He barely managed to breathe out a soft ‘thank you’ without choking up, automatically causing Y/n to smile broadly. Albeit awkwardly, she gave the space between his shoulder blades three gentle pats.

 

As comforting as the embrace was, it ended after a couple of tics. The Altean tilted her head to the door once she stepped back a little to give him some breathing space as his cheek bones gained a burgundy hue. 

“We should get back to the others,” she suggested making him nod and place a hand of his hip, his free thumb brushing under his nose cockily.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Can’t starve them of our company for too long,” Lance shrugged as the two began to make their way out. He nearly fell over when his new friend nudged his side a little too hard after a good-natured snort. 

 

“Yeah, yeah…” Her jesting dismissal trailed off as the pyramidal drone made its presence known with its low whirring. The machine lazily floated by and Y/n stopped in her tracks to observe it closely.

 

“Hey, Rover,” the human greeted it casually, only noticing now that she wasn’t walking anymore. Her eyes, however, were growing wide with alarm once Rover began beeping and heading towards the crystal, her breath hitching. 

“Wait. Where's Pid-“ 

“Lance,” she turned to him as the beeping intensified, “it’s a bomb!” 

 

With very limited time to act and the promise she made merely seconds previously weighing heavily on her conscious, Y/n could think of only one plan that would work.

Before the boy could move to do, well, anything, she stepped closer and hoisted him up and over her shoulder by the collar and the belt parts of his suit. All he could do was yelp and peer down at her helplessly with wide eyes. 

“Woah woah woah! What are you-?” the soldier didn’t have time to answer his questions as she leaned him backwards and tightened her grip.

“Brace yourself!” was his final warning before he was swiftly launched forward at almost break-neck speed to barely escape the devastating explosion. 

 

The whole castle trembled and began powering down, its heart being obliterated. 

 

Y/n didn’t remember closing her eyes, or being forced down to the floor. A skull shattering ringing clung to her ears before she managed to force her eyes open. E/c irises couldn’t quite fathom what was going on in front of them.

Almost solid smoke obscured her double-vision as her arms wobbled to try lift herself back up. The fallen soldier coughed to try dispel her lungs from dust and swallow in air, but it only made the ache in her chest worsen. It almost felt like she was submersed in a dense liquid. Moving a finger took immense effort, as if her world was in slow motion. Only muffled, indiscernible noises was heard past the high-pitched ringing seemingly in the Altean’s brain.

 

Sleep tempted her heavy limbs as her face twisted into a wince when she forced herself to prevail. The harsh wave of nausea that swiftly engulfed Y/n didn't help her efforts. Just before her arms could collapse, two pairs of feet frantically rushed to greet her. Once she blinked the dizziness away, there was only one person in front of her sitting form, kneeling down. They seemed to be saying something, maybe even yelling, but she couldn’t hear.

Gentle hands on Y/n’s shoulders grounded her until they started to shake her back and forth, making her head loll and her stomach lurch. As her world began to spin wildly, slowly but surely her pointed ears began to tune into her surroundings.

“…-/n?! …-ease answer me!” Her tongue felt like it was too big for her mouth, the muscle limp and useless regarding basic communication. Once she stopped shaking, the Altean could focus on identifying the worried white-and-blue blob before her. It was a victory that she recognised it was her name he kept repeating. Now what was his…? 

 

Y/n’s dazed gaze tilted up slowly to see the very worried- and very close -face of the blue paladin. A weak smile tugged at her dust-covered lips as he wasn’t harmed. Her attention was far from his nervous and fretting babbling, but on her goal to try help. 

An unsteady but certain hand gently came up to rest on Lance’s head of soft, milk-chocolate locks. His string of incomprehensible apologies came to a halt at that. Her smile softened and grew at his guilt laced expression. 

“I-“ Her improvised motivational speech was cut off when her vocal chords and lungs refused to let her continue. 

 

A thundering group of footsteps grew in volume as the annoying noise in her head diminished, giving way to a pounding headache. It also let her recognise the voice of the paladin leader.

“What happened?” 

If Lance’s head could’ve spun around the whole 180 degrees, it would have to face the rest of his team emerge from the smoke and rubble. 

“O-Over here!” he cried out, his voice struggling not to crack as the L/n's hand fell limply to his shoulder. While the footsteps drew closer, her hand trembled with the effort of tightening her grip on him. With gritted teeth, she attempted to stand for a second time, now with extra support. “Y/n’s hurt bad.”

“Y/n?” a more familiar voice called out from the gloom before they gasped and rushed forward, followed by others. A wince tugged at her lips when two hands carefully held onto each of her arms and began hoisting her up. The smaller Altean tried her best not to keen over from the burning sting that made its presence known under her abdomen. 

“M’fine,” she slurred as her bleary eyes shifted to the small crowd around her and the fellow Alteans that held her battered and bruised body. 

 

Allura had half the mind to scold her dearest friend for undermining her well-being but only sighed softly. She glanced back to the shattered remains of the crystal making the crease between her eyebrows deepen. 

“We have to get Y/n to the infirmary!” Pidge proclaimed before the injured alien as the blue paladin got to his feet. 

“Without the crystal, the Castle has no power,” the princess solemnly explained, sharing a worried look with the ginger.

 

A tense atmosphere, like the dust, had settled over them all and it only worsened at the soft, rapid ‘pap’ noises that proved to be the Arusian King’s alarmed running towards them.

“Lion warriors, our village is under attack!” the short man exclaimed, anxious sweat even visible to the injured Altean. “We need help!” 

The fact that this attack came so quickly after the explosion rendering the castle useless made internal red flags rise and flail. Wide open doors, plenty civilians to possibly exploit, only the stars know how many escape pods from Sendak's ship could've landed around the planet...all ingredients to a most likely successful infiltration. It was way too coincidental, but she might just be a tad paranoid so Y/n bit her tongue. Adding to the panic uselessly is never a wise move.

 

“Let's get to the lions!” the red paladin was the first to act in response to the King’s plea. Unfortunately it just wasn’t in the right direction.

“You can't. They're sealed in their hangars. There's no way to get them out. We're defenseless.” With every word Allura admitted with extreme pessimism -or realism, depends on your viewpoint really- panic settled heavy on her audience.

“Will you not help us?!” The Arusian was the first to break under pressure, not making the situation any better. 

“We'll help you. We just-“ Keith grew aggravated with the tension pushing down on him, pushing down on everyone including the injured Altean. 

 

Dark, enticing circles danced around the edges of her vision, as she failed to notice her drained form swaying from side to side. It was almost as if Y/n blinked for a split second and when she opened her eyes, she found herself being lowered carefully to the ground by Coran with the control panel podium as a back support.

The yellow paladin grimaced anxiously as their strongest was out of commission so quickly. He couldn’t help but think that it should have been him going after Lance, his closest friend. For the umpteenth time he doubted his role, his duty as the pilot of the Yellow Lion, the one that should put others before himself. There was no hope in hiding his thoughts, “This is bad.”

Nobody could have expected the celebratory night could go so sideways. Yet here they were, with our main character fighting a slowly losing battle to remain conscious.

 

“We have to get a new crystal to get the Castle working again. But, to get a new crystal, we need a ship,” Coran began, rising to his feet before the ragtag team. The smallest paladin’s eyes widened as their luck seemed to turn around finally.

“The pod I was loading, we can use that! I left the bay door open,” she spoke up, making Y/n’s brows knit together in confusion and question if her hearing was right. What pod? The mechanic nodded with a click of his fingers, already beginning the journey in his mind. 

“I can use the scanner in the pod to see if there's a Balmera nearby!” his feet began to catch up with his mind as he began jogging to the door, patting the yellow paladin’s shoulder when he passed him. “Hunk, you come with me. I'll need someone big to help me carry the crystal.”

Bewildered, but understanding the urgency of the situation, the said human began to scurry after the ginger, followed quickly by the originally intended user of the pod. After all, she’s not going to have her add-ons go to waist, might as well let someone do the honours of testing them.

 

“I'll go see what's happening at the Arusian village,” Keith pacified the native’s worries, taking charge though not without looking at the official Voltron leader for approval. The Altean member of royalty stepped forth, a determined look in her eyes that Y/n recognised and quite frankly disliked at the moment.

“I'll go with you, Keith. I brought this on the poor Arusians.” Yep, the soldier did not like this at all, though, knowing the princess, she doubted there was anything she could say that would stop her. E/c met pale blue before the pair could accompany the King.

“Be careful, ‘Rura,” Y/n managed to utter loud enough for her to hear. Allura nodded with a smile that failed to hide her anxious thoughts. 

“I will. You stay here and wait for Coran to return. You’ll be in a healing pod in no time,” she assured before turning to the remaining two paladins left without anything to do. The black paladin shifted a hesitant look over at the more pensive human. Lance had been staring into space with a conflicted expression that knit his thin brows together and made any sign of current self-awareness vacate his eyes.

“We’ll tend to Y/n and stand watch over the Castle,” the leader decided, assuring both Alteans. Now that she was perfectly satisfied, the princess made her leave with Voltron’s right hand at her heals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mean...if you really want to hear my excuses for this very very vEry late update, I'd absolutely explain everything. If the short version is alright here it is anyways; this summer was quite hectic, not gonna lie. I'm not guaranteeing that now I'll be able to do scheduled chapters every week but they'll definitely be more frequent...hopefully...
> 
> As an extra bit o apology and thanks to ArctictFox here, it has come to my attention that there isn't much Shiro love in the previous chapter, so I added a little something something extra. Also is anyone interested in doing any sort of fanart thing?? No??? Ehh I don't know how the cool kids or fresh folk work these days but please let me know if its something you guys are interested in doing????


	12. Let’s see how far we’ve come...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternative title; The chapter in which everyone yells ‘Y/n’

Ragged breathing filled the air as the remaining young woman tried to gather her jumbled thoughts, her hand limply resting on her aching torso, over the almost perfectly intact armour. The human leader knelt down before her and placed his cool, comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Take it easy, Y/n. You don’t want to injure yourself any further,” he coaxed gently but the said girl just shook her head and moved her hand to rest on his lethargically. A grimace formed a crease between her brows as she felt as though her brain was bouncing against her skull.

“No, I need to- something’s…not right,” Y/n voiced her suspicions wearily, looking the leader directly in the eye to emphasise her point. Surely Shiro couldn’t deny that the circumstances were sketchy to say the least.

With furrowed brows and thinned lips, Takashi hesitated before nodding in agreement, though the problem was what to do with this ominous threat. He could only think of one solution that had the best chance of working. Rising to his feet, he got down to business, internally cursing his lack of any knowledge beyond basic first aid to help the Altean. 

“Me and Lance will do a quick parametre check around the castle,” the black paladin began, while the said teen shifted closer once he heard his name. Y/n’s attention drew to the so far rather quiet paladin as the blue bayard morphed into the gun that gave him the nickname 'sharpshooter' in the first place with only the strength of his will. 

 

The Cuban's usual happy-go-lucky attitude appeared to be long gone, replaced by one of a soldier committed to achieve whatever Shiro told him to. He'd make sure that his guardian would know that her promise goes both ways. Lance doubted deep down that he had the courage to sacrifice himself outright, but with the spiritually elected leader of the space-cat-pilots guiding him, he could at least make sure she'd be safe.

 

Y/n's eyes widened before her head lowered, hiding her hangdog look akin to a criminal. The humans shouldn't be put in danger while she did nothing. It was meant to be the other way around, quiznak.

“We’ll be back before you know it,” was the last phrase she heard before the light taps of inconsistent footsteps growing fainter and fainter, until she was left alone with the sense of impending doom looming over her. The soldier lacked the will to even lift her gaze to watch them leave.

 

Y/n’s eyes fluttered shut as she sucked in a long breath through her nose, held it for a couple of ticks despite the sharp sting, and exhaled through chapped lips. The soldier’s eyes opened wearily once she regained her composure, lifting her head slowly to gaze blankly before her.

Now that there was no need to have any sort of reputation to withold, she openly grimaced as she bent a knee steadily, bringing it up to her torso with the flat of her foot against the fridgid floor.

With a flash of light, the lone Altean had her bayard in the form of a gun in a loose grip. Y/n propped up her weapon weakly against her leg like a make-shift tripod.

Now that the entrance of the room was decently guarded, she took a moment to assess the damage done to her. With a shaky cough, the Altean took in as deep a breath as she could before beginning to prod gently at where her torso hurt the most.

Her eyes screw shut as her breath hissed out past her clenched teeth at a certain, painful jab. Yep, definitely a thing or two broken in there, probably internal bleeding too. It appeared that all of her left side, quite frankly, quiznaking ached down to her very soul.

When her e/c irises trailed wearily across the floor, she managed to find a sliver of a silver lining in the rather somber situation. Shards of the crystal littered the ground around her, ranging from being the size of a pinkie nail to larger than her torso. Y/n could definitely find a use for a handful of particular shards just the right sides for the Explorer’s obliterated engines.

With a weary sigh, she managed to calm down, focusing on the new found ray of hope. It was all she could do for now as she waited.

The fact that she was so helpless at the moment left a bitter taste in her mouth. Then again, it could just be the lingering dust that coated her pallet, along with the metallic tang of blood.

 

Her shoulders tensed when she heard faint scuffling approaching. With a clammy grip, the soldier readjusted her aim towards the door. The noises proved to be steady footsteps, though there was an odd sound of something heavy being dragged. 

With a tremor in her fingers, the steps edged closer and closer. Y/n’s pointed ear twitched as the it was more than two pairs of feet that they picked up. Four- no, five beings were heading her way. She had half the mind to call out for the two paladins that left her most recently, as a shred of naive hope lingered. Maybe Pidge, Keith and Allura were with them?

 

Despite feeling ready for whatever or whoever it was that would appear around the corner, nothing could've prepared her for the sight of the kind and composed leader of Voltron being held up by the neck, his feet dangling high off the ground. She felt her blood run cold as the abnormally large claw that held Shiro's means of breathing led to an orb of an abysmal energy as an elbow, further leading to the smug sneer of Sendak.

Shiro couldn’t even struggle in his grip as his hands were restrained behind his back. Quiznack, he could barely make a sound of warning as the enemy proceeded as if they owned the place. With each strangled noise from the leader, her eyes widened more with horror and rage. With a trembling intake of breath, Y/n aimed for the Galra general’s head. 

“Let him go,” she demanded as steadily as she could, though she felt as though her innards were quivering like a leaf. The vile brute merely snickered as he waltzed further into the control room.

“I see the princess’ guard dog has a new owner,” he antagonised, ignoring her order while projecting his voice loudly in a way that sent a shudder down her spine. Before she could manage to unscramble her panicked thoughts into a plan or witty retort, Sendak’s right hand man followed after, dragging a limp Lance carelessly begins him.

 

The L/n felt like all the air was knocked out of her as her focus was drawn to the unresponsive (hopefully just unconscious) paladin. Has she already broken her promise..? Did she really fail so miserably to protect the universes only hope? Was she the reason why the lightly flirty, sensative and sweet boy may not wake up?

It was while she was distracted by the sheer weight of the crippling failure that an armoured boot got close enough to kick her already damaged side. Shiro made a strangled call for her as he desperately tried to kick at the general before said Galran threw him roughly in a heap beside her. Thoroughly winded, the human leader shifted to face her, wheezing and spluttering all the while.

"Y-Y/n!" he automatically blurted, feeling absolutely helpless as he watched the Altean heave and cough roughly from her injuries. His blood boiled at the cruel laughter of the enemy as Haxus followed his superior's lead in throwing his prisoner to the ground. The conscious human felt his heart plummet at how Lance's head hit the ground harshly before the rest of his body followed, almost as if it was in slow motion.

Takashi barely payed attention to the trio of remaining droids that the blue paladin didn’t manage to shoot earlier as they struggled while dragging a large crystal to the centre of the room. He couldn’t do a damn thing but straighten himself (hah) up to sit relatively comfortably as the smaller Galra moved to restrain the wheezing female.

The said girl felt her skin crawl as the enemy kneeled by her aching side and leaned close enough to be heard while speaking lowly with eerie delight. “Don’t try anything ‘heroic’, unless you want your precious paladins to end up like the castle’s crystal.”

No other motivation was needed to get her to comply. The sight alone of the black and blue paladins was enough to obscure her vision with tears. With frustration gnawing at her, Y/n didn’t even notice the slightly banged-up Galra droids filling the cavity in the ceiling with a crudely cut crystal even bigger than the original.

It was almost as if the universe had mercy on her for once when Haxus deemed her too much of a threat while conscious and proceeded to use all his strength to knock her out cold. 

She felt the weight of guilt smother her as she couldn’t help but welcome the induced numbness that was sleep like a warm blanket. Not dealing with being unable to breathe and general pain was, dare I say, quite good.

 

Y/n L/n managed to sleep relatively peacefully through the two take-off attempts, undisturbed by the battle happening around her that led to the capture of Sendak and the rather brutal death of his second in command along with a beloved robot, not to mention she failed to witness a certain very important bonding moment.

 

If someone out there said that being in a healing pod was a calm and invigorating experience, they’d be lying. It’s a fast process, sure, as it feels as if the patient just blinked for half a tick longer than usual before ‘waking up’ drained and stiff. Phantom pain of vanished injuries also lingered a while after as well as a bone-deep chill.

 

Bright lights practically blinded the recovering soldier as she stammered out of the opening in the pod. The apparent jelly consistency of Y/n’s legs would’ve made her promptly greet the floor with her face, if it weren’t for a pair of lanky arms. A light ‘woah!’ chirped from above as her nose flattened rather uncomfortably upon impact with a shoulder. 

Thanks to the helping hands, the Altean was able to regain her balance and general sense of awareness. Now standing back a bit with relative ease, the young girl was able to get a look at who’s forearms she held onto tightly (just... for security reasons). Her eyes widened with a mixture of relief and surprise at the sight of the concerned and albeit bashful blue Paladin. Without much of a second thought to allow Lance the time to cultivate and grow a wobbly grin, she trapped him in a tight embrace.

“You’re okay, thank quiznack,” the soldier mumbled, mostly to assure herself as the poor boy could only let out a pained wheeze. It was that noise coupled with the distinct sound of his heart racing Y/n heard all too clearly when pressing her cheek to his chest that jumpstarted her brain. Upon realising her severe lack of professionalism and the fact that she was crushing him, heat flooded the female’s face. She stiffly let go and retracted her arms before promptly shuffled backwards a few steps with warbled apologies spilling past her lips. 

Now that her vision wasn’t obscured, she could see the rest of the castle’s residents having some rather intense discussion in the middle of the room. Thankfully it didn’t take too long for someone to notice that she was indeed ‘up and at ‘em. 

Alas, ‘twas the yellow paladin who glanced up, performed a double-take and initiated a stampede with a loud cry of her name. 

Quickly, Y/n learned how the lanky boy felt previously when she was engulfed in one of the Samoan’s famous bear-hugs. Her relatively tiny frame was smothered in honestly the nicest way possible. She gently patted Hunk’s back and muffled a soft ‘I’m okay’ to hopefully satiate his worries. While finding herself enjoying the snug hold he had on her, the soldier momentarily forgot about the others. A certain pointy-eared princess certainly wouldn’t allow that to carry on. 

 

The recovering Altean was barely released and allowed to actually see what was going on when half her vision was obscured by fluffy, white curls. Allura slipped in to her still outstretched arms with ease, not even hesitating to hug her soldier, her closest friend’s healed torso.

Y/n’s ears burned as the other girl buried her head into her shoulder. Slowly, the h/c haired girl wrapped one arm around her waist while the other soothingly stroked the thick tresses. 

“Don’t scare me like that,” the princess scolded meekly, her breath sending goosebumps rippling through Y/n’s body, causing it growing exponentially warmer. While fighting down the guilt that usually ate at her insides whenever she made her princess worry, the soldier lifted her gaze to meet those of the humans and remaining Altean.

Even the red paladin offered her a sort of ‘glad you’re not dead’ smile and nod. The seed of fondness deep inside her that already started its metamorphosis had enveloped her completely, snuffing out the guilt for now. 

“M’sorry, ‘Rura,” Y/n ended up murmuring back, not quite able to promise something she knew she wouldn’t keep. Quiznack, everyone knew that there was no way the self proclaimed guardian of Voltron and Altean royalty would stop doing what she loved best. There would be a lot more scaring and worrying before the L/n ended her beloved hobby of protecting her friends. Her slowly, but surely, growing family.

There wasn’t even time for Allura to loosen her grip before the remaining Altean joined in on the hugging action. Now the girl in the middle of the lovely mess couldn’t see the ominously approaching humans or even begin to guess their mischievous intentions.

“Aw yeah, group hug!” The right amount of time to digest what Lance suddenly yelled was swiftly snatched away along with any sense of personal space. All the soldier could do was accept her fate as the hold her comrades had on her tightened with each new member, whether their participation was willing or not.

Each constricted breath came out as a laugh- a tad strained sure but oh so genuine and Y/n could honestly say that she was feeling the happiest she felt in a long while. She barely managed to notice the absence of a distinct pair of arms accompanied by a short gasp. The yellow paladin regretfully had to fight the urge to join in the fun as the responsible chef in him grew weary of leaving his cooking food unattended. At the sound of his retreating footsteps, the others retracted their hold but remained close.

 

“It’s good to have you back,” the human leader mused, his artificial digits ruffling her hair gently. As a result, the Altean felt the cool metal contrast nicely with the warmth of her neck and ears.

“Good to be back,” Y/n agreed with a lightly sheepish grin and a rumble in her tummy. 

Without the time to think of anything but the gaping hole that was her stomach, she was ushered into the dining room. There, Hunk rather lavishly lifted a pair of metal hemispheres to reveal heavenly scented meals in bowls. Honestly, the Altean didn’t know what it was but really couldn’t care less. It was tasty and oh so warm. 

As her and the Blue Paladin (who she learned had woken up a Quintant or two before her and had waited to eat) tucked in, Allura narrated the epic tale that was the fall of the Castle of Lions. The humans filled in whenever necessary, complimenting each others efforts in defeating the invaders. What stuck out the most was how much the youngest Paladin had to do all by herself and how the now resident cook found his fighting spirit on the Balmera.

 

In the time it took to explain most of what happened, the soldier finished the sort of stew with the bowl basically clean and quickly became occupied with giving the biggest mouse a well deserved belly rub. Y/n managed to even zone out briefly as the cute rodent became putty at her finger tips. A rising argument, however, managed to redirect her attention much to the mouse’s displeasure, right after the Altean decided that they really needed some names.

 

“Sounds like the mice did more than you, though.” The Blue Paladin, Of course, was provoking his (one-sided) rival. Now that she thought about it, the mullet-head hadn’t said much during the whole recap event. From his perched position on top of the table, Keith’s shoulders stiffened. My, my was it easy to gain a reaction from him.

“I punched Senak!" Lance merely turned his nose up with a raised brow at the protest, deeply amusing their now quite attentive audience. 

“Yeah, apparently after I emerged from a coma and shot his arm off." The L/n had to cough to hide a laugh at how Pidge was looking between the two in unamused disbelief. It was her, after all, who was responsible for the severing of the Galra general’s weaponised limb.

"We had a bonding moment. I cradled you in my arms!" The bickering boys didn’t notice Y/n’s eyebrows rise to her hairline and exchange a look with the green paladin at the almost tangible desperation in his tone (never mind the voice break).

“Nope. Don't remember, didn't happen.” The swift denial certainly wasn’t convincing to anyone but the red paladin, paired with the even faster change of subject. “So, what happened to Sendak?"

Unphased by anything at this point, Allura explained almost gravely, "He's frozen in a cryo-pod. We're keeping him here in the Castle." The soldier halted in her lightly sympathetic pats on the surprisingly very dejected red paladin in favour of looking at her princess uncertainly.

“You mean..? Are you sure that’s the best idea? I-I mean, I’m sure one of the prison rooms would still be working,” she trailed off with a thoughtful grumble, withdrawing her hand from Keith’s arm to scratch her chin. With a light sigh, the white haired Altean shook her head.

“We have a better chance of getting some information about Zarkon this way.” 

 

A thick silence hung as a result of the rather heavy thought that was the lingering evil presence on the ship. The mere concept was enough to turn the once pleasant, full feeling in Y/n’s stomach into a heavy, churning pit of dread. Thankfully the Cuban took it upon himself to break the silence.

“So,” he began, leaning back in his seat, “what's the plan now?" 

“We have to get back to the Balmera and save Shay and her people,” the Yellow Paladin spoke up rather eagerly, his enthusiasm rubbing off on those around him. 

“Wow, you are really hung up on this lady,” Lance mused lightly with a raised brow though his closest friend was quick deny anything of the sort.

“Look, guys, when you see how Zarkon has treated these people and destroyed their home. They've been under his thumb for so long, they don't even know what it is to be free!” The rather fond feeling grew greater as e/c eyes witnessed the swift maturity of the previously discouraged teen. “It's up to us to set this right. This is what being a Paladin of Voltron is all about. It's time to man up."

 

It seemed as though the human leader felt similarly as he placed his hands on his hips before announcing the beginning of their mission to defend the universe. Just as the team began to leave the dining hall with high spirits, the smallest paladin called them to a halt.

“Wait, I have something to say first. I need to come clean and... I'm afraid this may change the way you all think about me,” Pidge’s rather grave tone caused our beloved main character’s brows to knit in worry, but she held her tongue for now. “Just so there are no secrets between us anymore, I can't ‘man up’... I'm a girl."

 

Yet another heavy silence followed the confession, one that was broken by the soldier’s sigh of relief. Meanwhile the boy who was yet to depart from the table was utterly flabbergasted by the news.

“I-I mean, I can ‘man up’ because that's just a figure of speech. I don't have to actually be a man to ‘man up’. I just have to be tough. But what I'm saying-“ Her continued speech was cut off abruptly by Lance’s splutters of confusion.

“Huh- Eh- Wha-?! You're a girl!?HOW!?" His cries fell on deaf ears apart from the pointy pair belonging to the soldier who gently patted his shoulder thrice. It seemed as though everyone but the blue paladin had already figured out the big ‘secret’. Y/n quite frankly shared the male Altean’s confusion with regards to even thinking Pidge was a boy in the first place.

 

With that sorted, it was the smallest girl’s turn to sigh in relief at how anticlimactic the whole reveal was. The last thing she wanted was to start some big drama unnecessarily.

"It's good to get that off my chest. Now, let's launch this Castleship!" Pidge proudly proclaimed with a grin, rebooting the start of their predestined mission. Only the pair that most recently ate remained.

The blue paladin turned to his remaining companion, shaking his head in disbelief. It seemed as though his life had turn upside down at these two rather unexpected bits of information.

“So wait, Pidge is a girl and the Castle is a ship? How long have we been out?"

 

Instead of offering a verbal answer that may have helped ease the poor, confused soul, Y/n offered him a shrug...

 

...and an extra pair of pats for good measure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy holidays everyone!!


End file.
